A newly launched consumer watch type site has just been launched in South Africa. However, after looking through the site, SEAN BACHER feels there is still a lot of work to be done.
Most of us have something to say about good and bad service or great or disappointing products. A newly launched site, www.thumzup.co.za is said to offer consumers the opportunity of posting real reviews ‚ for anyone to comment on.
Gadget picked up on news of the new site a decided to go and see what it is all about. After all, there are numerous other sites such as Hellopeter.co.za and the like, all offering similar services. According to the site, you’ll find reviews of a whole range of products, written by the people who actually use them. However, after browsing through the site we found that there are very few reviewers and as a result very few service and product reviews. Further more the site claims there is no marketing hype, but many of the reviews read much the same as advertorial, making it look as if the review was actually written by the company who manufactures the product or offers the service.
“I felt it was important that the reviews should be completely independent so anyone can be a reviewer. At present we have invited colleagues to send their unsolicited reviews of places and products and the site is becoming very active. We have already been asked to do some reviews but the understanding is that we will not be compromised and will give honest opinions,‚ says Thumzup founder, Lynne Smit.
We agree with the site’s principle 100%, however feel that what is being offered in terms of product reviews is nothing new. There are latterly thousands of sites offering independently written product reviews through out the world.
The site is divided into five categories:
Overall, although the site has the potential to offer a great service to its readers, we feel that it will take a lot of hard work and endless new reviews before it will be able to offer any sort of credible information to its South Africa readers.
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Our aim is to encvourage the general public to send in reviews themselves, so I think the fact that you are seeing very few reviewers is due to the fact that the site is so new.
By the way, I can say with absolute certainty that none of the reviews presently on the site were written by anyone who had anything to with the product or service. If it reads like an advertorial, that’s just because that is the way the independent reviewer chose to write it.
I really hope that anyone who disagrees with a review (whether it is positive or negative) will take the opportunity to add their comments.
Thanks again. Lynne for Thumzup
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