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Gigabyte commits massive PR oopsie in China

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Summary

Taiwan based manufacturer of hardware, Gigabyte, has decided to attempt company self-destruct in the Chinese market

 

Original Gigabyte statement that caused controversy: 

gigabyte.JPG.a2daee9fffae8e1309c6c48b6a6b97ec.JPG

 

The original page was posted in mainland China of all things, a bold move to say the least. 

 

Rough translation:

Quote

Unlike other brands, Gigabyte is made in Taiwan with strict quality control. If you wish to choose low cost and low quality, please choose a Chinese OEM. Gigabyte is committed to manufacturing high quality parts and laptops. As a Taiwanese company, 90% of Gigabyte laptops are made in Taiwan. Gigabyte is committed to strict quality control and high quality 

However, Gigabyte ended up drawing attention to itself, leading to further discovery regarding its inconsistent About page

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I'm not sure if it's clear on the forums, plus it's mostly in Chinese, but basically Gigabyte implies that Taiwan and China are separate on all its sites with the exception of their Chinese site, this was the top comment on their apology post on Bilibili, at the time of writing it's at 16397 upvotes compared to the apology post's 1668

 

Gigabyte statement in response, Google translated

Quote

The apology statement

 

A few days ago, part of the text content published on our official website is seriously inconsistent with the facts. It is caused by the company's internal management. We sincerely apologize for the discomfort caused to you. At the same time, we also thank the majority of players and users for our company's concern.

GIGABYTE's product business includes boards, notebook computers, computer peripheral accessories, etc., with production lines all over mainland China, and its production capacity accounts for more than 90%. GIGABYTE prides itself on the quality of Chinese production. Chinese production assists GIGABYTE in creating excellent products and high-quality experiences for consumers around the world. The product quality has withstood the test of the market and consumers for many years.

GIGABYTE has been operating in mainland China for more than 20 years, and will conduct a thorough review of the inappropriate remarks and carry out rectification actions to comply with national principles. GIGABYTE will strengthen internal management and training to ensure that all employees are aware of the problem and pay attention to it.

GIGABYTE    
May 11, 2021

 

Since this event has made its rounds on Chinese internet, JD.com, one of the two major e-commerce platforms in China, has hidden search results of Gigabyte products, currently the most viewed video criticizing Gigabyte has reached over 1 million views on Bilibili, and all commentary appears to be negative. 

 

This is really just part of a series of escalating tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, it's likely some guy rather low on the corporate ladder decided put the line in. I don't want to go into the details too much but the situation between Taiwan and China is basically a civil war that didn't exactly end, there's a lot of history that most Westerners, even those that pay attention to politics don't really understand. The hostility between the two sides has been rising in the last few years. ASUS previously had a similar incident, except it was in the opposite direction, where an employee messed with company sponsorship of a streamer over the Taiwan issue without the appropriate authority. 

 

Sources

https://cntechpost.com/2021/05/11/gigabyte-sparks-controversy-by-mocking-made-in-china-as-low-quality/

https://t.bilibili.com/523423287801259465?tab=2

 

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It's fine if we laugh at the stereotype that china product is awful, but when a company does it it's suddenly not okie dokie?

 

Idk, I personally don't see an issue here but I can see why people would feel offended by it, so it's a bad PR move indeed

 

Edit: also, gigabyte makes shit product anyways, ask me how I know

-sigh- feeling like I'm being too negative lately

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11 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

It's fine if we laugh at the stereotype that china product is awful, but when a company does it it's suddenly not okie dokie?

It has nothing to do with that. Chinese Communist Party is extremely sensitive to matters regarding PR of any kind but especially Taiwan, as officially they recognize that Taiwan is China, so Gigabyte even making that distinction on their Chinese website was bold to say the least.

The "apology" is clearly made so the party officials don't take reprisal for that, as they could easily temporarily or even permanently forbid sales of Gigabyte products.

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2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

It has nothing to do with that. Chinese Communist Party is extremely sensitive to matters regarding PR of any kind but especially Taiwan, as officially they recognize that Taiwan is China, so Gigabyte even making that distinction on their Chinese website was bold to say the least.

The "apology" is clearly made so the party officials don't take reprisal for that, as they could easily temporarily or even permanently forbid sales of Gigabyte products.

It's also public opinion at this point. Cross-strait hostilities has gone up significantly since COVID and Gigabyte is likely trying to avoid a H&M style consumer boycott

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19 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

Edit: also, gigabyte makes shit product anyways, ask me how I know

probably not worth going for the beefiest 3.5 slot card? Considering just going for FTW3 3090 when its avaible in norway.

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I'm not sure if it's clear on the forums, plus it's mostly in Chinese, but basically Gigabyte implies that Taiwan and China are separate on all its sites with the exception of their Chinese site

that's because if you want to work in china, you need to consider taiwan or Taipei or whatever you call it as part of china, it's a pretty sensitive topic in china for obviously reasons

 

while taiwan itself and many other countries do consider Taiwan as a separated state from the mainland China

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Funny how their main advertising point is being made in China. 

 

Here in the western world, everything cheap is made in China. Anywhere else that advertising stratagem wouldn't work very well.

 

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The incident exploded on Chinese internet at 1 a.m. local time yesterday. As of right now, nearly all main retailers in China have removed Gigabyte products.

 

Many brands choose to set their factories in China mainland, and they make good products. No wonder Gigabyte's products are crap.

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but... products made in china are generally bad

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48 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

but... products made in china are generally bad

Pretty much all Western electronics is made in China, so not really.

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1 hour ago, Elisis said:

Pretty much all Western electronics is made in China, so not really.

just be lucky you dont get the chinese products africa gets, and lets leave it at that

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1 hour ago, cj09beira said:

just be lucky you dont get the chinese products africa gets, and lets leave it at that

I think they build to the exact spec they're contracted to, using the materials chosen by the party contracting the production. So, if Africa gets worse stuff, then distributors in Africa and manufacturers for African good could be ordering cheaper production.

 

If China offers cheaper production than other places, it makes sense that companies looking to save by cutting corners would be getting stuff built there. But it doesn't mean that everything from there will be of inferior quality.

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2 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

I think they build to the exact spec they're contracted to, using the materials chosen by the party contracting the production. So, if Africa gets worse stuff, then distributors in Africa and manufacturers for African good could be ordering cheaper production.

 

If China offers cheaper production than other places, it makes sense that companies looking to save by cutting corners would be getting stuff built there. But it doesn't mean that everything from there will be of inferior quality.

let me put it this way, not everything from china is horrible quality but almost everything that is of horrible quality was made in china

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Regardless of how you feel about Taiwan/China, I think it was a pretty shitty thing to say.

It's one thing to talk well about your own products, but once you start going "look at how bad our competitors are, not like us that are great" you come off as an asshat. Assuming the translation is accurate.

 

I would say the same thing if Apple said:

Quote

Unlike other brands, Apple is a US company with strict quality control. If you wish to choose low cost and low quality, please choose a Korean company. Apple is committed to manufacturing high quality parts and equipment. As a US company, 90% of Apple equipment are made in the US. Apple is committed to strict quality control and high quality.

 

or if Samsung said:

Quote

Unlike other brands, Samsung is a Korean company with strict quality control. If you wish to choose low cost and low quality, please choose a US company. Samsung is committed to manufacturing high quality parts and equipment. As a Korean company, 90% of Samsung equipment are made in Korea. Samsung is committed to strict quality control and high quality.

 

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Yikes for them but does this meam they'll have products available here now? 

 

Regardless, this is all politics, the PRC always exerts it's influence when criticized.  Gigabyte will gladly suffer for the privilege of serving the Chinese market.  Just another day. 

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On 5/12/2021 at 4:48 AM, cj09beira said:

let me put it this way, not everything from china is horrible quality but almost everything that is of horrible quality was made in china

almost everything is made in china these days so that's a null hypothesis

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How dare Gigabyte criticize our Chinese overlords. People should immediately take out any Gigabyte component they may have burn them in public to show them their place. Such insolence cannot be tolerated.

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Coulda sworn they pulled something similar a while ago, or is that the same story?

 

 

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On 5/12/2021 at 7:35 AM, LAwLz said:

Regardless of how you feel about Taiwan/China, I think it was a pretty shitty thing to say.

It's one thing to talk well about your own products, but once you start going "look at how bad our competitors are, not like us that are great" you come off as an asshat. Assuming the translation is accurate.

 

I would say the same thing if Apple said:

 

or if Samsung said:

 

I mean... if that happened people on this forum would be triggered for about 3 days but I'm pretty sure amazon and newegg would keep selling Samsung products unlike what has happened in China with their major retailers.

 

On a side note, I've always found fascinating how chinese culture in general has had an extreme distaste of criticism/insults (or maybe it's mostly the government and companies fearing retaliation from it). Meanwhile here in western countries calling your government dumb, useless and idiotic is common place and even encouraged. 

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On 5/14/2021 at 7:01 PM, avg123 said:

How dare Gigabyte criticize our Chinese overlords. People should immediately take out any Gigabyte component they may have burn them in public to show them their place. Such insolence cannot be tolerated.

Gotta save that social credit score somehow 😂

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This reminds me, I need to go out and buy some pineapples.

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I had a few Gigabyte products that failed after a few years. Not impressed !

I would stick with Asus.

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