Gushcloud boss Vincent Ha has written a lengthy blog post to clarify and refute allegations made by blogger Xiaxue in her 23 Dec expose.

He concluded that while Xiaxue "said many things about my character and about my colleagues and the company", she was entitled to her opinion. He would "agree to disagree" on many areas with Nuffnang but would hope to look at ways to compete and provide the best service "instead of dragging each other through mud".

It's pretty lengthy so we summarised it for you.

1. On 'inflated' earnings

Ha states that in the midst of shutting down its initial technology platform, GushAd.com, in 2012 and focusing on its influencer marketing services, an employee 'spoke to the media about our earnings and this was mistakenly construed to be S$170k monthly.'

Ha notes that it was 'an honest mistake'. He added that logically, it made no sense to inflate earnings which would attract higher taxes.

2. On making its bloggers mask ads

Ha states that 'Gushcloud does not force our influencers to mask ads or hide or pretend that they are not paid.'

Ha further added that Gushcloud gives bloggers a content guideline that encourages them not to write posts like an advertisement to make the content more palatable for readers.

He also revealed that should clients request that bloggers mask advertisements, Gushcloud would check if the blogger was comfortable to do so. He added that this was lawful but will explore the option of making it mandatory for bloggers to reveal advertisements and sponsored content should the need arise in the future.

3. On the inflation of blogger statistics

Ha said that Gushcloud shared monthly blogger page views to clients via a Power Point slides. The statistics are updated manually and done 'every few months (sometimes annually) or when an influencer’s numbers changes significantly or that we are alerted to the change'.

The statement goes on to provide several screen shots of Google Analytics that corroborate viewership numbers provided by Gushcloud.

Ha further adds that the tracking link Xiaxue used to extract page views from Gushcloud affiliated bloggers does not show the accurate numbers. Ha claimed that there were 'many technical reasons for this' and deferred to using figures from Google Analytics.

4. On the inflation of YouTube video views

Again, Ha refuted Xiaxue's claims that the views were inflated through buying of views. He said that 'the allegation (or suggestion) that we bought YouTube video views in order to build a channel for ourselves to earn advertiser’s money is false.'

5. On the irregular financial reports

Ha said that of all the allegations, this was 'perhaps the most damaging to Gushcloud'.

He noted that Xiaxue had wanted to seed the idea that Gushcloud was 'engaging in shady business' and that it was having trouble paying vendors and its own bloggers.

Yan Kay Kay also responded

Source: Yan Kay Kay Instagram

Blogger Yan Kay Kay, who is affiliated with Gushcloud as a "Gush Studios Youtuber", had also responded to Xiaxue's allegations. She provided a detailed account of her Youtube statistics and her blog statistics and explained the reasons for the differences in the viewership figures.

Top photo from Gushcloud.

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