Samsung electronics, South Korea's largest electronics manufacturer, has hit back at reports circulating that it actively paid Chinese students to attend a Galaxy S6 launch event in Shanghai, GSM Arena reported on Tuesday. The Seoul headquartered company responded to suggestions that it had paid over 500 guests to attend the flagship phone's opening, calling them "totally bogus."
The company went on to say, "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.”
According to the report in The Paper, people were recruited and paid 30 yuan ($5) to attend the event, posing as students and Samsung enthusiasts.
It could be that the story was a hoax spread by a rival company. However this wouldn't be the first time a company has paid people to come to an event. Samsung has in the past paid people to post negative comments about HTC online, which it later blamed upon an external agency, and also to pay developers to promote Samsung on Stack Overflow, an app in the developer community.
Samsung's Iran representative hasn't officially announced when the Galaxy S6 will be launched in the local market. The phone also isn't for sale currently in any of the online e-shops which usually import them initially through grey channels from the United Arab Emirates. However, the company's local website is displaying the item on their homepage.
