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On April 22, a post on the microblog ging website Weibo.com caught netizens’ attention across China. Fu Weigang, a 34-year-old lawyer who works at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, said in the post every time his post was forwarded, he would give 1 yuan ($0.15) to the son of Zhang Miao, a young mother stabbed to death by a student in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, last year.
The killer was sentenced to death and ordered to pay compensation of 45,498.50 yuan($6,975) to Zhang’s family. Fu believed the compensation was too small, so he launched the donation campaign in order to help the impoverished family.
But Fu never expected there would be so many followers to this post. Within three days, Fu’s microblog, which previously had 600 followers, got more than 50,000 new followers, and his post had been forwarded more than 360,000 times by April 25.
“I made this promise on impulse originally,” said Fu, who revealed he got this idea on his way for lunch. “I didn’t even know whether the victim had a son or a daughter. At that time, I had only 600 followers. I thought, at most, this post will only be forwarded for several thousands times and I would be fully able to handle that.”
Ten minutes after he posted the donation pledge, Fu added another post saying multiple forwards by a same person would be counted only once.
It was too late. His post had already gone viral.
Fu eventually set the maximal amount of his donation at 540,000 yuan ($83,407), the compensation that Zhang’s family asked at court. He said some of his friends and fellow posters would help him raise the cash.
Inspired by Fu’s efforts, Xu Youzhen, the owner of a network firm, said he would donate 2 yuan ($0.30) for each extra follower on his microblog with an upper limit of 2 million yuan ($307,000). A businessman from Shenzhen and a journalist also launched similar campaigns.
At first, Wang Hui, the husband of Zhang, refused to take such a substantial sum of money, fearing this would be a heavy burden for Fu.
“It is a promise I made and a lot of people witnessed that,” Fu said. “I was serious making this promise and I can’t eat my words.”A new trend
On January 16, at a wedding ceremony held in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, the bride and bridegroom announced their promise posted together on 3150114.com, a website that collects people’s promises.
The 23-year-old bride, Gao Panpan, heard about the website from a friend. “I saw many promises on the website, about love, friendship and business. It was very new and interesting for me and I wanted to give it a try. I want more people to see our promise,” she said.
Gao then made the promise with her would-be husband Jia Guofa on the website that they will “grow old together.”
People post various promises on this website. Some even uploaded their pictures and posted their cellphone numbers.
For example, Wang Xiaoping, a 37-yearold real estate agent in Urumqi, apologized for a dispute with a client and said he would like to take all the blame for it.
Yuan Xinzhe, who works with the website 3150114.com, said as long as people made promises on the website, they would accept the burden of being monitored by society.
Founded in 2006, this website has more than 200 registered users in Xinjiang. “The users have to sign up with their personal information, including birthdays, cellphone numbers and ID numbers,” Yuan said. “If they cannot keep their words, we will publicize their information on the Internet.”
“For corporate members, we have stricter rules. A legal representative has to give us a signature and provide the basic information of his or her company. If necessary, we will visit the company. As long as a company makes a promise, we will keep track on the process and publicize it on the website if it doesn’t keep its promises,” Yuan said.
“I think many people really care about their public recognition, that is why they don’t make promises casually, not to mention to make promises in public,” said Wu Xiaoli, a worker at the website. “So I think online promises can work, in a way.”
Monitoring problems
At the end of January, many express delivery companies in China posted notices on their websites, promising they would not halt operations during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday beginning February 2. However, when a reporter from Xinhua News Agency tried to contact the companies on February 2, he found out only one company was operating normally.
“I don’t trust their promises online anymore,” said Xiao Xinyu, a resident in Yunnan Province who bought some food from an online shop before the Spring Festival. “When I made the order, the shop owner said they could be delivered on time,” Xiao said. “But after I paid and waited for three days, I still didn’t get a delivery number that I could use to track the order online.”
Xiao then contacted the shop owner, who said express delivery companies had refused to deliver during the Spring Festival.
“It is the problem of monitoring online promises,” said Li Jiayu, a microblog marketing manager in Beijing. “In most cases, the public has no idea where to turn to when there are frauds.”
Li also revealed some of the promisebreaking cases on Weibo.com, mostly relating to promotional lottery drawings. Some companies promised they would randomly award prizes to a small number of people who forwarded their posts. The prizes varied from an iPad to a large amount of money or a nice dinner. However, there was no individual or organization to monitor this process. Some of the companies didn’t publicize the list of winners. Their promises were really fraudulent.
As for Fu’s donation campaign, Fang Zhouzi, an Internet affairs commentator in Beijing, suspects Fu was attempting a publicity stunt. “When he saw users forwarding at a frightening rate, he set a maximum number of the donation,” Fang said. “It is, in a way, eating his own words.”
“No matter whether Fu kept his words or not, he is known by many more people and his followers soared from 600 to 50,000 and the number is still increasing,” said Xie Qiang, General Manager of Beijing-based Freelong Cultural Communication Co. Ltd.,“Many people take advantage of microblogging, especially for commercial purposes. There are no rules for punishing people or companies who fail to fulfill their promises. In Fu’s case, even if he refused to donate in the end, we couldn’t force him to fulfill his promise except for decrying the irresponsible act.”
Fu said in a microblog post on April 30 he had discussed the donation details with Zhang’s family. On May 31, he said in another post he was discussing with other donators about the details.
“I think keeping online promises now mostly relies on the conscientiousness of the promise makers,” Fu said. “There are still no laws or regulations in this regard so far.”
“We can’t just rely on conscience,” Xie said. “Weibo.com now can only publicize cheaters’ wrong doings, but it cannot enforce repercussions. This must be changed as soon as the Internet is playing such an increasingly important role in modern society.”
The killer was sentenced to death and ordered to pay compensation of 45,498.50 yuan($6,975) to Zhang’s family. Fu believed the compensation was too small, so he launched the donation campaign in order to help the impoverished family.
But Fu never expected there would be so many followers to this post. Within three days, Fu’s microblog, which previously had 600 followers, got more than 50,000 new followers, and his post had been forwarded more than 360,000 times by April 25.
“I made this promise on impulse originally,” said Fu, who revealed he got this idea on his way for lunch. “I didn’t even know whether the victim had a son or a daughter. At that time, I had only 600 followers. I thought, at most, this post will only be forwarded for several thousands times and I would be fully able to handle that.”
Ten minutes after he posted the donation pledge, Fu added another post saying multiple forwards by a same person would be counted only once.
It was too late. His post had already gone viral.
Fu eventually set the maximal amount of his donation at 540,000 yuan ($83,407), the compensation that Zhang’s family asked at court. He said some of his friends and fellow posters would help him raise the cash.
Inspired by Fu’s efforts, Xu Youzhen, the owner of a network firm, said he would donate 2 yuan ($0.30) for each extra follower on his microblog with an upper limit of 2 million yuan ($307,000). A businessman from Shenzhen and a journalist also launched similar campaigns.
At first, Wang Hui, the husband of Zhang, refused to take such a substantial sum of money, fearing this would be a heavy burden for Fu.
“It is a promise I made and a lot of people witnessed that,” Fu said. “I was serious making this promise and I can’t eat my words.”A new trend
On January 16, at a wedding ceremony held in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, the bride and bridegroom announced their promise posted together on 3150114.com, a website that collects people’s promises.
The 23-year-old bride, Gao Panpan, heard about the website from a friend. “I saw many promises on the website, about love, friendship and business. It was very new and interesting for me and I wanted to give it a try. I want more people to see our promise,” she said.
Gao then made the promise with her would-be husband Jia Guofa on the website that they will “grow old together.”
People post various promises on this website. Some even uploaded their pictures and posted their cellphone numbers.
For example, Wang Xiaoping, a 37-yearold real estate agent in Urumqi, apologized for a dispute with a client and said he would like to take all the blame for it.
Yuan Xinzhe, who works with the website 3150114.com, said as long as people made promises on the website, they would accept the burden of being monitored by society.
Founded in 2006, this website has more than 200 registered users in Xinjiang. “The users have to sign up with their personal information, including birthdays, cellphone numbers and ID numbers,” Yuan said. “If they cannot keep their words, we will publicize their information on the Internet.”
“For corporate members, we have stricter rules. A legal representative has to give us a signature and provide the basic information of his or her company. If necessary, we will visit the company. As long as a company makes a promise, we will keep track on the process and publicize it on the website if it doesn’t keep its promises,” Yuan said.
“I think many people really care about their public recognition, that is why they don’t make promises casually, not to mention to make promises in public,” said Wu Xiaoli, a worker at the website. “So I think online promises can work, in a way.”
Monitoring problems
At the end of January, many express delivery companies in China posted notices on their websites, promising they would not halt operations during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday beginning February 2. However, when a reporter from Xinhua News Agency tried to contact the companies on February 2, he found out only one company was operating normally.
“I don’t trust their promises online anymore,” said Xiao Xinyu, a resident in Yunnan Province who bought some food from an online shop before the Spring Festival. “When I made the order, the shop owner said they could be delivered on time,” Xiao said. “But after I paid and waited for three days, I still didn’t get a delivery number that I could use to track the order online.”
Xiao then contacted the shop owner, who said express delivery companies had refused to deliver during the Spring Festival.
“It is the problem of monitoring online promises,” said Li Jiayu, a microblog marketing manager in Beijing. “In most cases, the public has no idea where to turn to when there are frauds.”
Li also revealed some of the promisebreaking cases on Weibo.com, mostly relating to promotional lottery drawings. Some companies promised they would randomly award prizes to a small number of people who forwarded their posts. The prizes varied from an iPad to a large amount of money or a nice dinner. However, there was no individual or organization to monitor this process. Some of the companies didn’t publicize the list of winners. Their promises were really fraudulent.
As for Fu’s donation campaign, Fang Zhouzi, an Internet affairs commentator in Beijing, suspects Fu was attempting a publicity stunt. “When he saw users forwarding at a frightening rate, he set a maximum number of the donation,” Fang said. “It is, in a way, eating his own words.”
“No matter whether Fu kept his words or not, he is known by many more people and his followers soared from 600 to 50,000 and the number is still increasing,” said Xie Qiang, General Manager of Beijing-based Freelong Cultural Communication Co. Ltd.,“Many people take advantage of microblogging, especially for commercial purposes. There are no rules for punishing people or companies who fail to fulfill their promises. In Fu’s case, even if he refused to donate in the end, we couldn’t force him to fulfill his promise except for decrying the irresponsible act.”
Fu said in a microblog post on April 30 he had discussed the donation details with Zhang’s family. On May 31, he said in another post he was discussing with other donators about the details.
“I think keeping online promises now mostly relies on the conscientiousness of the promise makers,” Fu said. “There are still no laws or regulations in this regard so far.”
“We can’t just rely on conscience,” Xie said. “Weibo.com now can only publicize cheaters’ wrong doings, but it cannot enforce repercussions. This must be changed as soon as the Internet is playing such an increasingly important role in modern society.”