Corporate China | Weibo: Tech execs trash CCTV consumer rights show

Where were you this past Saturday night? Most of us probably spent the evening having dinner out, or perhaps visiting friends. But for many of China's tech executives, the date of March 15 has become for nervousness due to CCTV's annual investigative reports broadcast that evening for Consumer Rights Day. The program often targets high-profile brands in its effort to uncover abusive business practices, and many of those names come from the tech sector. But this year's program was a relative disappointment, with some observers cynically noting on their microblogs that CCTV seemed more interested in generating advertising revenue than protecting consumers.

One notable exception to the chorus of cynical comments was Qihoo 360's (NYSE: QIHU) controversial and outspoken CEO Zhou Hongyi, who took delight on his microblog in the fact that archrival Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) was featured in one of the program's reports. All the attention shows just how influential CCTV's Consumer Rights Day program has become, with the ability to send any company into crisis mode if it gets featured for abusing consumers.

Global tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Chinese online game operator NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) were both featured on last year's show, resulting in a firestorm of negative publicity for both. The situation got so bad for Apple, which was criticized for bad after-sales service, that the company took the rare move of issuing an apology to Chinese consumers and promising to address the problem.

By comparison, this year's program was a relative non-event. One of the most prominently featured companies was a supplier that provided expired ingredients to several major food chains including Singaporean bakery chain BreadTalk. Most of the biggest consumer and tech names escaped any mention on the show, undoubtedly bringing huge sighs of relief from their top tech executives and public relations officials.

The lack of big stories this year, coupled with the growing cynicism, hint at waning influence for not only the show, but also for CCTV as it faces competition from a growing group of Internet-based video channels. CCTV has itself also become the subject of controversy, drawing criticism in 2 more recent cases that tried to expose bad business practices.