"We can never know whether we're looking at a fake review or one from real customers," she concluded. Thailand leads the world in its reliance on social media to do shopping, according to a study by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC). "Here in Thailand we can see an insane amount of paid social media endorsements in the form of product reviews by social media stars, which shows that brands consider reviews important marketing tools," said Funk. Many online reviews exaggerate benefits, saying consumers can "lose weight in one day" or "have white skin overnight". While consumers call them "fake reviews", review writers see them as only "marketing strategies".

Source: Bangkok Post April 09, 2017 00:00 UTC