Samsung says it didn't pay fans to attend its Galaxy S6 launch event in China

Samsung has officially dismissed reports coming out of China that it paid hundreds of young people to attend its Galaxy S6 and S6 edge launch event in  Shanghai, China, which took place on Friday, April 3.

The South Korean giant said the whole story is "totally groundless and bogus."

“The news article contended that part-timers, acting as “fanboys”of Samsung smartphones, participated in the launching event. However, our findings have indicated that under no circumstances has anyone been hired or given money to attend the event. In fact, the more than 1,100 attendees, including consumers and industry officials, have all been formally invited to the Shanghai Culture Square where the event took place.

"In the wake of the investigation, the media outlet that broke the story corroborated our findings and soon retracted the erroneous story. Separately, we are seriously considering whether to request the media outlet to take further action in the matter by issuing a correction. We will also continue our efforts to find out how this story came to be”, a statement from Samsung on its blog Samsung Tomorrow, yesterday, reads.


Media reports from China claim that the tech firm had roped in 500 people – almost 50 per cent of the total attendees – as pretend Samsung fans at a press conference held Friday.

Quoting someone with knowledge of recruiting these fans, the report said the fans were paid about $4.80 (Dh20) to attend the hour-long event.

The report also said that these fans – many of them with iPhones in hand – were told to tell the media that that they were Samsung fans who loved the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge and were seen taking pictures of the newly launched devices.

Some of the fans also said they had to post the pictures and like them on WeChat.