A two-minute sex video shot inside a Shanghai building became viral on Chinese social media even if it showed nothing except the naked shoulder of the woman and the skyline.
There were some moans heard on the video, but what caught the interest of netizens were the details of the room where the video was shot, reported LA Times. Before the Chinese censors removed it from Weibo, the clip was searched 280,000 times on Baidu, China’s leading search engine.
The search term used was Lujiazui, a financial district in Shanghai where the video was shot based on the skyscrapers seen on the clip. Eventually, netizens pinpointed the location as the Four Seasons Hotel, while the white chair in the corner of the room was identified as made by Beijing-based Qumei Furniture Group.
As a result of the unintended free publicity, shareprices of Qumei went up by almost 10 percent on Wednesday. However, because of the buzz about the video, the censors removed in on Thursday from Weibo, although a shorter version of it is still available on YouTube.
On the same day, police raided Four Seasons Hotel, while in the early evening, Weibo not only removed the video but also closed five accounts which used the clip as a bait to gain followers.
But it continue to be passed around and viewed on WeChat, which has almost 700 million users, by Thursday. The video was a hot topic in a friend circles made up of 500 professionals who speculated on the identities of the woman and the man who shot the video but was apparently not her husband.
Hu Xingdou, a social commentator, explained the fascination of Chinese netizens with sex videos to sexual repression being around China for a very long time. “When things open up just a bit, Chinese people’s curiosity becomes a dreadful monster,” he explained.
In July 2015, the Cyberspace Administration of China rebuked Tencent and Weibo for publishing a sex video shot inside the changing room of the Uniqlo store in Beijing. Uniqlo, a Japanese fashion brand, became a popular selfie spot after the sex video of a couple making love became viral in Chinese social media, although it was eventually removed.