Can you buy a "water army" to become a KOL in the cryptocurrency circle? From the experience of OKEx, it seems that the price is like this.

"Internet army" is not uncommon, but it is usually done in secret. Surprisingly, OKEx's "blatant" use of internet army for marketing on Twitter has sparked controversy.

Just after being blocked by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, OKEx CEO Jay Hao has once again become the focus of public opinion. The night before last, Larry Cermak, research director of the well-known media outlet The Block, mocked Jay Hao on Twitter:

"If you're wondering why Jay Hao gets likes and comments on his garbage posts, it's because OKEx is running a marketing campaign where they pay $0.5 for each like and comment. This is how they're trying to boost his popularity."

If you're wondering why OKEx CEO Jay Hao (@JayHao8) gets quite a bit of likes/RTs on some nonsense tweets, it's because OKEx's VP of Influencer Marketing is literally paying people $0.50 per comment, RT and like. That's how they want to make him "the next BIG name in crypto" pic.twitter.com/pxB1XpLSK4

— Larry Cermak 🫡 (@lawmaster) March 4, 2020

Let's take a look at this marketing case study. The Twitter account @jasminecoin invited people to join Jay Hao's marketing group, with the aim of "making Jay Hao a celebrity in the crypto world," and offering OKEx's platform token OKB as a reward. Upon entering Jay Hao's marketing group, more detailed information was provided by the administrator, Blazej:

"Simply like, comment, and share according to the rules, and you can earn $0.5. The requirement is to post at least two sentences related to the topic. After collecting rewards four times, the rewards will be deposited into the OKEx account of the internet army."

Larry Cermak mentioned that he discovered this because Jay Hao replied to a nonsensical post in his tweet but received many responses. This led him to realize the existence of this "marketing scheme." He sarcastically added that since Zhao Changpeng often said that The Block was bought by OKEx to spread rumors about Binance, he was curious about Zhao's reaction this time.

Jay Hao Steps Forward to Disinfect

While this type of marketing strategy of buying popularity with money may be common in China, openly buying internet army marketing for an individual may be considered unusual in the West.

In response to this incident, Jay Hao stated that he doesn't care about his popularity and was unaware of the situation, and has already asked the company to stop such activities.

I come to @Twitter as it's one of the biggest social media platform for crypto communities. I love to be a CS here to solve problems users may have.

Number of followers? I don't care.. and I'm not aware of this promotion. But thanks for the notice @lawmaster, I'll look into it – https://t.co/ZjMYPNEKVY

— jay_okx.lens | OKX CEO (@Jay_OKX) March 4, 2020

After contacting OKEx's marketing personnel and receiving no response, the group no longer contains any content. The Twitter account @jasminecoin later stated that she only wanted to use rewards to do her own marketing work.

There are various marketing activities in the crypto world, especially when combined with cryptocurrencies, many marketing plans are carefully crafted. From this incident, it seems that buying internet army support with money should perhaps be done more discreetly.

Related Reads

• Binance Suspends Trading Again and Rejects OKEx's "Help"
• OKEx Announces Launch of OKChain, DEX Testnet, OKB Surges Over 40% in a Day

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