5/5 (1)

Whenever I shop online, reviews are my compass. If I’m on Amazon, I’ll scroll past the product description and go straight to the stars, pictures, and those oddly specific comments from strangers. On TikTok Shop, I’ll check what influencers say before I even consider hitting add to cart. Reviews feel like the digital version of asking your friend if its worth buying but here’s the catch can we actually trust them anymore?

Over the past year, story after story has popped up about fake reviews flooding platforms. In the UK, the competition authority even launched an investigation into Amazon because so many sellers were caught gaming the system. There are entire underground networks where people get free products or cash to leave 5 star ratings. Some even use bots that can pump out hundreds of reviews overnight. On TikTok, it’s slightly different but just as sketchy creators push products during livestreams or short videos, sometimes without really testing them. They make it look authentic, but it’s essentially paid promotion disguised as customer experience.

This makes me wonder if reviews are the thing that’s supposed to help us filter the good from the bad, what happens when the filter itself is broken. A few months ago, I bought a best selling workout set that had thousands of glowing reviews on Amazon. The first week was fine then out of nowhere they broke and the color faded. When I went back to the listing I noticed that many of the verified reviews were written in the same copy paste style, with weird grammar and suspiciously vague compliments like very good product, nice quality. That’s when it hit me that they were almost all fake.

This isn’t really about my workout set tough it is a bigger trust problem. Online markets work because we assume reviews are some kind of collective truth. If enough people say somethings good it probably is but if those reviews can be bought the entire system starts to become sketchy.

Platforms know this and actually amazon has started suing fake review brokers and claims it’s rolling out better AI to catch suspicious patterns. TikTok says it iss developing stronger verification tools to weed out shady sellers. That’s all good, but it still feels like a game. Sellers who want to cheat have every reason to stay one step ahead because a higher rating almost always means more sales.

So where does this leave us as consumers? I think we might be moving toward two possible futures. Either fake reviews keep popping up, and we just get better at spotting them. You know the signs same reviews over and over, super generic praise, or crazy high ratings on cheap stuff. Basically, we turn into little detectives every time we buy something. Or people stop trusting open marketplaces and go to places where someone else does the checking for you like Costco where you pay a bit more see less variety but at least you’re less likely to get scammed.

Personally, I’m torn. I love the freedom of browsing through endless products online, reading what seems like authentic feedback from other buyers. At the same time, I hate feeling like I have to play detective just to avoid getting ripped off.

The bigger question is whether fake reviews are just an annoying side effect of the online shopping boom, or if they’re a sign that the system itself is unsustainable. If trust is the foundation of online markets, what happens if we can’t trust the reviews anymore. 

For now, I’ll keep scrolling through reviews and crossing my fingers that I can tell the real from the fake. But the next time I see a product with 10,000 5 star reviews, I’ll probably asking myself if it is real or fake!

No ratings yet.

I’ll admit it I’m obsessed with TikTok. I can easily lose hours scrolling, laughing, and learning random things I never knew I needed to know. So naturally, when I had to choose a topic for this blog post, I couldn’t resist writing about TikTok.

If you’ve been on the app, you’ve probably seen the endless banners shouting, “Invite a friend and earn €5!” TikTok has built some of the most aggressive referral programs out there. The model is simple the existing users get paid for bringing in friends, and new users can even earn money just by watching videos. On paper, it’s brilliant growth hacks don’t get more direct than literally paying people to join. But here’s the real question: is TikTok building genuine communities, or just pumping up vanity metrics?

The short-term benefits are obvious. TikTok exploded in markets like Europe partly thanks to these incentives, lowering entry barriers and making downloads skyrocket. But if we look deeper, the long-term story feels trickier. I recently read this study on referral programs in freemium platforms, and their findings were eye-opening (if interested the link will be attached at the end of the blog). They discovered that while referrals do boost acquisition, they often reduce both engagement and revenue.  For what reason? Despite the fact that higher referral criteria can boost revenue, they also deter consumers from staying because they prefer to recommend others instead of paying for premium features. To put it another way, recommendations might have mixed effects.

When that perspective is applied to TikTok, it becomes evident that some individuals are signing up not because they are interested in producing or viewing content but rather for the quick money. What’s left to keep them going after the rewards end? Additionally, the overall quality of interaction for those who are genuinely interested in the community and content may suffer if the platform is overrun with low value individuals.

Personally, I think referrals are most powerful when they amplify why people actually love the platform. Imagine if TikTok offered exclusive editing features, early access to trending sounds, or unique filters as referral rewards. That would reinforce the creative culture rather than distract from it.

Of course, despite my critique, you’ll still catch me scrolling at 2AM , completely hooked but I can’t help wondering: do cash-driven referral schemes really build lasting communities, or are they just inflating numbers to look good on a quarterly report?

Link to the article:
Rodrigo Belo, Ting Li (2022) Social Referral Programs for Freemium Platforms. Management Science 68(12):8933-8962. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4301