Samsung marketing agency used 'unethical' tactics to bribe developers

Samsung has admitted a marketing agency representing its Smart App Challenge attempted to pay developers to promote the contest on dev community Stack Overflow.

In an admission made to The Verge, the Korean giant described the practice which saw the aforementioned agency, Fllu, offer developers $500 to push the competition on the site - as "clearly against Samsung Electronics corporate policy."

The agency itself, which had previously described accusations it had bought Stack Overflow users as "false", has since admitted that its tactics were "misguided, unethical, and wrong."

The offer

The issue was first brought to light when an Android developer claimed Fllu emailed him to ask if he would be willing to ask "four questions on Stack Overflow over the span of a month", as well as "replies to posts made by other members."

"Had they approached me to ask that I promote the competition legitimately, I would've been happy to do it out of goodwill," detailed the developer in question, Delyan Kratunov, on his blog.

"I know this isn't Samsung's fault directly but please, please help me prevent Fllu and Samsung from getting away with this."

Redaction

After the original blog post was published, Kratunov was again contacted by Fllu to inform him that the company's previous request to "promote via these public channels" was a "breach against their terms of service and could result in your account being terminated."

"We do not condone such actions that contradict the respective forum policies and would like to redact any correspondences made," the email concluded.

However, both Samsung and Fllu appear to have accepted responsibility for the stunt, with Fllu's initial claim that Samsung wasn't one of its clients since qualified by the admission that it was "working on Samsung's promotion for an agency that works for Samsung."

This is not the first time Samsung's Smart App Challenge has courted controversy, however.

Back in December, one of the winners of the 2012 contest Guns & Blood by Asian developer Feelingtouch - was accused of being a clone of Czech outfit Craneballs' Overkill.

[source: The Verge]