Fans feel cheated over SBS MTV The Show Vote manipulation

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Suspicions of result manipulation continue to grow days after the December 2nd, 2014 broadcast of the Korea-China collaboration music program – SBS Plus x Tudou The Show. Many fans, particularly those in China, have taken to social media to vent their anger and displeasures. Let’s take an in-depth review to understand what had transpired that caused these fans to react this way.

Chinese fans are loaded but gullible? Same music program but only Chinese fans are charged to vote

As stated after the collaboration of The Show and Tudou, the final ranking scores of each song promoted on the program are calculated based on accumulated points earned collectively from the respective Korea and China ranking chart websites, SMS votes and Tudo live votes. Tudou votes also include those from LaiFeng(来疯), where fans are charged for each vote casted for their favorite KPop idol. From what we have learned, LaiFeng enables fans to make unlimited amount of votes at a cost of 1RMB per vote.

From fans’ perspectives, especially the Chinese, they were led to view the LaiFeng voting model as an opportune way to competitively get their favorite idol into 1st place. As such, some even went to the extent of spending large amount of money on LaiFeng votes, which showed their unwavering dedication, support, and determination. We have learned from a few fans who have voted on LaiFeng, that the majority are mostly teenagers or younger, and are not cash loaded.

In Korea, there was no such voting system.

Unequal treatment? Korean SMS votes weighted favorably over Chinese paid votes

During the December 2nd broadcast, fans of idol group GOT7 and T-ara spent a combined total of 20 million KRW (approximately 100,000RMB) solely on LaiFeng votes, earning each group 25% and 73% of the total votes respectively. In contrast, fans of APink spent less than 1000RMB, earning them only 1% of the total votes – pale by comparison.

73% of votes losing to 1% vote

What surprised fans was a group with 73% of the total votes lost to another group with only 1% of the total votes. The reason behind this perceived explanation is that the LaiFeng votes only stand at 15% of the final score. Many Chinese fans expressed outrage and disbelief for this outcome as they had spent an insanely huge amount of money for these votes. 73% to 1% – think about that!

At the same time, another component that contributed points towards the final scores was the live SMS votes. These votes only cost fans 100KRW (approximately 0.55RMB) per vote but has a similar weight factor of 15%. Some Chinese fans told us that they too have made those SMS votes as well. Some even went to the extent to inquire about the rules and regulations for the SMS votes on SBS. To date, their inquiries are still unanswered.

Subsequently, this led fans to increasingly mount suspicion on SBS deliberately being ambiguous in the rules and regulations behind the SMS votes to allow room for the final result to be easily manipulated.

Are LaiFeng votes unadulterated? Being supported by fickle fans on LaiFeng

There were significant vote differences for various idol groups between broadcast held on November 25th and December 2nd, 2014. One of the more prominent example was the votes Hyorin and JooYoung duo group received during both broadcasts. The duo went from earning a respectable amount of votes during the November 25th broadcast to earning one of the least amount of votes in just 1 week.

Another case of abrupt fluctuation? Rapid fluctuation of SMS votes

The chart above depicted unexplained shortcomings. During the first half of voting period from 19:00 to 19:30, APink only managed to amass 1081 SMS votes within that 30-minute span. By contrast in the second half (19:30 to 19:55), their SMS votes skyrocketed to a whopping 21395 within that 25-minute span. Fans were undoubtedly astonished by this huge fluctuation in the number of votes that they couldn’t help but suspected there was foul play.

Moreover, SMS votes for Hyorin and JooYoung duo, who were ranked 2nd on the Korean music board, were way lower than SMS votes for APink and GOT7, who was ranked 4th on the same Korean music board.

According to fans who constantly monitor the voting chart closely, the only 2 viable possibilities that could explain such a situation are that either there were low SMS vote volume or that the number of SMS votes had been doctored, for which both possibilities were rejected as unacceptable by Chinese fans.

Many fans are currently demanding via social media such as Twitter for SBS to release not just the percentage but also the actual amount of votes each idol group had received as well as revealing rule and regulation transparencies pertaining to SBS voting.

Tudou being pressured? Was the alteration of Tudou ranking chart influenced?

On December 2nd, Tudou altered their ranking chart after they have closed their score accumulation period, claiming that the changes were done after verifying the view counts via a 3rd party data monitoring service (艾瑞) which determines whether views were true or not. This adjustment resulted in APink earning an additional 500 points. How 艾瑞 calculates and constitutes a view as viable and true remains unknown.

We were informed by someone who is close to a staff working at Tudou that they are constantly being pressured by SBS, threatening the collaboration. Fans strongly believe the possibility that SBS firmly requested Tudou to make adjustments to the final rankings is very high, due to SBS possibly being the majority stakeholder in this collaboration.

Who would be the actual champion?

In following the data gathered, either GOT7 or T-ara could easily emerge as the clear winner if there were no unexplained fluctuation in SMS votes and/or alteration of the Tudou chart rankings.

As inquiries to SBS are left unfulfilled, questions are left unanswered, more and more Chinese fans are demanding rules and data transparencies, seeking for an explanation to justify or refute the recent final SBS results. Fans are angry, determined, and have signed a petition for SBS to release an official acceptable explanation.

Overall, Chinese fans expressed that they welcome the collaboration and are very glad that Tudou is working with Korea to broadcast more KPop music programs in China. However, they hope and ask that such programs reflect truth and fairness, and treat fans equally. It is then such programs can be long lasting and warmly welcomed and enjoyed by the audience.

Source: kpopking (Translator SPG, Trust & author Haibo & Kpopking.com)

Tl;dr: Large volume of evidence suggesting shady numbers for each category of the music ranking began to surface on social media last week. There is suspicion of result manipulation. Chinese fans are demanding refunds of fees that were charged to make votes (through LaiFeng, where you can vote endlessly at a cost of 1 RMB per vote).
Without the unexplained fluctuation in SMS votes and/or alteration of the Tudou chart rankings GOT7 or T-ara would have won.

Comments

[kevinmchale.livejournal.com]

T-ARA should have won then smh!!! justice for #LittleApple1stWin

[springsky.livejournal.com]

If they paid then they should get refunded. This is some BS!
It would've been nice to see T-ara win, ngl.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

I would've loved to see GOT7 get their first win or even T-Ara

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

This

[iftheshoefits88.livejournal.com]

You're telling me! T-T

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

But it's The Show. It's such an irrelevant show.

[peachywink1.livejournal.com]

normally I don't leave comments but the math alone proves they are doing this badly. The top percents split the Laifeng vote into 73% 1% 25% 1% and 1%....that's 101%. So I guess they wanted it to be impossible for an artist to earn less than one percent but they the corrected this during calculations in a very NOT okay way. You see if we think of each 1% equalling 15 points on the chart then T-ara was given proper credit as was everyone else...except for GOT7 they were docked 15 points. I guess this was to make the percents even but why them? Well again aeveryone apparently must have a minimum of 1 percent so if they wanted 100 ppercent they had to take it from either T-ara or GOT7. However when you add up all the scores in the Laifeng chart shown T-ara's percentage of the vote is at 72.7% and GOT7 is at 25.4%....meaning if they were going to take a full percent from a group in this point calculation they should have taken it from T-ara who earned 0.7% of a point instead of GOT7 who earned 1.4% of the missing point.
So before I get yelled at the single point does not matter. I am not saying GOT& should have won because to me it looks like T-ara won. What I'm trying to point out is even with just the information we have already the point system is showing flaws that can be calculated. Moving points around randomly like this is not okay.

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

But T-ara didn't win, Apink won. That's what people are complaining about. T-ara weren't given proper credit at all.

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

Well if I spent money I'd be pissed too...#JusticeforTaraorGOT7

[springsky.livejournal.com]

This is what irks me the most. Yeah, The Show is irrelevant but if I'm going to pay for my vote to count it should still be taken seriously.

[dickslikejesus.livejournal.com]

GOT7 and T-ARA both weren't present at The Show right?

We already know that most of these music shows don't enjoy letting people who aren't there win unless they are from SM or YG so is this so surprising?

Music shows have always been a load of shit realistically.

[getinmybelly-i.livejournal.com]

I dont know about got7 but T-ara was there.

[dickslikejesus.livejournal.com]

Ridiculous robbery then.

[leopolitan.livejournal.com]

thats so unfair, i hope they get refunded

JUSTICE FOR T-ARA!!!!!!!!!!! i want to see them win a show

[kjc48.livejournal.com]

#EVERYBODYKNOWS!!!!

LOL @ T-ARA's rise back to the top being blocked by APink. rollinginthedeep.mp3
Aw @ GOT7 being so close, yet too far :(

[nekokonneko.livejournal.com]

idec that the show is irrelevant, it would've been nice for got7 to get their first win

[atopworld.livejournal.com]

But it's The Show so...no big loss or win for anyone...lol.

[bauci.livejournal.com]

burn!

[vermicelli-rice.livejournal.com]

I've seen quite a lot of complaints about The Show's voting on weibo. And not just Apink's. The ones I recalled was some promotion cycles ago.