Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has once again been targeted by Chinese state media. Earlier this week, the tech giant was accused of preying on college students and discriminating against Chinese owners of its products.
Today The Wall Street Journal reports that this is now the third day in a row that the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Communist Party, has run critical stories about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The Journal said today’s article is once again critical of the tech company’s warranty policy in China. It also reportedly said the company’s defense of its customer service practices was arrogant.
Of course it’s still too early to know whether Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will gain or lose ground in China because of the negative coverage. Social media in China has apparently been filled with complaints about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s warranty policies and customer service.
However, the Journal reports that there was an “unintended consequence” to the state media’s negative coverage of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Chinese financial publication posted a poll on its Weibo microblog on Wednesday, asking readers to vote on which “arrogant company or companies” they wanted to smash. The publication left it open for comments, but the question was worded similarly to the title of the article in the People’s Daily, which was “Smash Apple’s ‘Incomparable’ Arrogance.”
By Wednesday night, there were more than 600 comments on the pool, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) wasn’t even one of the top mentions in those comments. Most of the companies named were monopolies owned by the state, including the three biggest oil companies in China, the four major banks there, three large telecom service providers and a number of government-operated services. And just behind those companies? People’s Daily and other media outlets run by the state.
