JD Finance Photo: VCG

JD Finance apologized for a number of online short videos which have seriously challenged social values, resulting in a lot of online criticism, this follows competitor firms including Ant Financial and 360 Finance also releasing poor taste contents designed to drive traffic.

JD Finance said they accept full responsibility for the content, blaming poor process management and internal error. The company promised to conduct a full internal review. 

The JD Finance videos which were posted on major Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin, include one clip showing a middle-aged man in a camouflage uniform asking a flight at-tendant for urgent help because his mother feels nauseous, hoping to open the window or change seats.

Immediately, the advertisement focused the camera on the other passengers in the plane. They expressed contempt for the behavior of the man in camouflage uniform: "Have you never been on an airplane?" "Are you responsible for something wrong?"

Then, the stewardess asked the man in camouflage uniform if he would like to spend 1,280 yuan ($195) for a cabin upgrade.

When the man hesitated, a man in respected suit said that he would upgrade the cabin for the man. But dramatically, the man in suit takes the phone of the man in camouflage uniform. When he returned back the phone, the mobile phone showed a figure of 150,000 yuan.

The man in the suit explained, "This is your reserve on the JD bank. You can use it whenever you need it in a hurry. No more ridicule from others. The end of this short video also attached detailed process of how to make the loan.

A lot of people believe that the values behind this advertisement are unhealthy and in poor taste, and should not advocate such behavior of "not being laughed at." Many netizens called the ads "disgusting."

Netizens also said that such videos are targeted at low information users, with the clip not even  telling how much the interest will be after borrowing money.

It is not the first time internet firms have overstepped boundaries for content. 

Firm 360 Finance in September posted an advertisement with the content that a stewardess dressed up told a man in tattered clothes that he can only marry him by borrowing money on the 360 Finance.

Ant Group, formerly called Ant Financial, part of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba Group also posted similar advertisements in October in which a construction foreman borrowed money for his daughter's birthday, in addition to a clip in which graduates borrow money to travel around the world.

Global Times