E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal’s app is getting a rash of one star ratings on its app on Google Play today, due to a recent statement made by its brand ambassador Aamir Khan. The actor had earlier said in a award ceremony of journalists that “When I chat with Kiran at home, she says, ‘Should we move out of India?’ That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm.”
Soon, there was a heavy backlash in the social media condemning Aamir Khan’s irresponsible statement. It did not take much time for dissent against him to take the toll on the brands he endorses. Snapdeal has been affected the most. There is a Twitter campaign going on under hashtags #appwapsi and #bootoutsnapdeal. Many people have supported this campaign and have given 1 star rating in the Play Store and have uninstalled the app from their mobile. The number of devices where snapdeal app have been uninstalled are not confirmed, but it is believed to be more than 2 lakhs.
People have come out openly in voicing their opinion against Aamir Khan’s “anti-national” remarks. A post in a Facebook page The Nationalist, which appealed it’s followers to uninstall their Snapdeal app received a tremendous response. The post was shared more than 4000 times and has received hundreds of screenshots of people uninstalling the app. Go through #AppWapsi, #Snapdeal and #BootOutSnapdeal links to see user reactions in Twitter and Facebook.
Snapdeal had signed up Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador in March this year. Company spokespersons declined to offer a comment on the development. Web users taking down services or down-voting apps in the wake of controversies is not a new phenomenon. Earlier when Flipkart and Airtel seemingly joined hands to try a service that many dubbed violation of net neutrality, the Flipkart app was downvoted by users in the Play store.
The single star in the Play Store will seriously affect the Snapdeal. There were users, who installed the app for the first time, just to give one star rating. If the Snapdeal or Aamir Khan does not come out with clarification/apology, the campaign won’t stop said a Twitter user.
