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0Erinome: Hello dear friends, and welcome back to our show! I'm Erinome.
Enceladus: And I'm Enceladus. Today, we are going to talk about a very interesting topic: annoying ads on our phones.
Erinome: Haha, I think everyone has a story about that. But this one is special. It's about an ad that caused real problems for people trying to get to work.
Enceladus: Oh? Tell me more. What happened?
Erinome: Well, in the city of Guangzhou, many people use the Guangzhou Metro App to pay for the subway. You open the app, show a QR code, and scan it to enter. Simple, right?
Enceladus: Yes, that sounds very normal. I use a similar app in my city.
Erinome: But recently, there was a problem. On the QR code page, they added a "shake-to-see-ad" feature.
Enceladus: A what? A "shake-to-see-ad"? What does that mean?
Erinome: It means if you shake your phone, even a little bit, an advertisement pops up and takes over your whole screen.
Enceladus: Oh no! I can see the problem already. When you are walking or in a hurry, your phone is always shaking a little.
Erinome: Exactly! Imagine you're running to catch a train during the morning rush hour. You take out your phone, and just because you're walking, an ad for Taobao or Pinduoduo appears instead of your ticket.
Enceladus: That sounds like a nightmare! You would block the gate and everyone behind you.
Erinome: That's what happened. People were very, very angry. One user called it an "electronic roadblock". Haha.
Enceladus: "Electronic roadblock". I like that. It's very accurate. It must have been especially hard for older people.
Erinome: You are right. One person said his father, who is not good with smartphones, kept getting the ad and couldn't figure out how to pay for the subway. Sad.
Enceladus: So people complained, right? What did the Guangzhou Metro company say?
Erinome: At first, their customer service gave a very strange answer. You know that?
Enceladus: What did they say?
Erinome: They said, "not everyone dislikes ads."
Enceladus: Wow. Just... wow. That's not a good response. That sounds like they are blaming the users.
Erinome: It made people even angrier. But the good news is, after many people complained on social media, the company listened.
Enceladus: So they fixed it?
Erinome: Yes. On October 30th, the same day the story became very popular online, they removed that type of ad from the app.
Enceladus: That's a very quick response. It's good that they listened to the people in the end.
Erinome: It is. But the story gets even crazier. Do you want to know who invented this "shake-to-see-ad" idea?
Enceladus: There's an inventor? I thought it was just a bad idea from a company.
Erinome: Well, a man named Chen Chao was given an award by his company. He was named "Employee of the Year" for inventing this ad format.
Enceladus: You're joking! He got an award for making something so annoying? Why?
Erinome: Because there was a new law that said pop-up ads must have a clear "skip" or "close" button. After that, not many people clicked on ads.
Enceladus: Okay, that makes sense.
Erinome: So, Chen Chao's "shake" idea was a new way to get people to open the ads, even by accident. It was like a trick to fight the new law. His company thought it was very smart.
Enceladus: But the users hate it! People on the internet were probably very mad at him.
Erinome: They were. One person said, "So it was you who brought the devil into the village!" Haha.
Enceladus: It's a fight, then. A war between the companies and the users.
Erinome: It really is. Users even created their own apps to fight back. For example, there was a popular app called "Li Tiaotiao".
Enceladus: "Li Tiaotiao"? What did it do?
Erinome: It was a free tool that automatically clicked the "skip" button on ads for you. It didn't need the internet and didn't make money.
Enceladus: That sounds amazing! A true hero for the users.
Erinome: It was. But then, a very big internet company sent a lawyer's letter to the creator of "Li Tiaotiao".
Enceladus: Oh no. Why?
Erinome: The big company said the app was "unfair competition" because it stopped their ads from working.
Enceladus: That's unbelievable. The helpful tool gets into trouble. So what happened to it?
Erinome: The creator had to stop working on it. It's a sad story.
Enceladus: So, the big companies can put annoying ads everywhere, but we can't use tools to block them? That feels unfair.
Erinome: It does. But there is some hope. Some new phones now let you control which apps can use your phone's sensors.
Enceladus: What does that mean?
Erinome: The "shake" function uses a sensor called a gyroscope. If you turn off the app's permission to use this sensor, the shake-ad won't work anymore.
Enceladus: Ah, that's clever. So users are finding new ways to fight back.
Erinome: Yes. But the real question is, should a public service app, like a metro app, have these kinds of ads at all?
