[Cont. updated] Technical Guruji vs Xiaomi Manu Kumar Jain controversy

There are new updates that have been added to the bottom of the story…

Gaurav Chaudhary, who is popularly known as Technical Guruji in the world of YouTube and Twitter, is a very well known name in India’s online smartphone community. In just over 3 years of his existence on these platforms, Gaurav has managed to gain millions of followers/subscribers.

If you take a look at his YouTube Channel, you’ll find tech focused videos, especially smartphone related – unboxing, reviews, and such. The latest video on Technical Guruji’s YouTube channel focuses on Samsung’s new M series smartphones.

Gaurav was present at the India launch event for these Galaxy M series phones, and was also on stage for unveiling and unboxing.

While one can understand brands courting influential personalities for product launches to gain more marketing mileage, Gaurav’s on stage presence at the Samsung M series phone launch has not gone down well with some.

It was Xiaomi’s global VP and India MD Manu Kumar Jain who started this debate on whether it’s correct for tech bloggers (vlogger in this case) to be on stage at product launches especially when your work involves reviews as well.

In a tweet, Manu also speculated a possibility of money exchanging hands in return of endorsement.

Ironical to see tech bloggers get up on stage at product launches, talking all great things about the product (maybe influenced by monetary payment). As a reviewer, users depend on you to be honest & open about any product. How can this be termed as ‘unbiased’ media?

It’s worth mentioning that Manu’s tweet didn’t explicitly name Gaurav or the Technical Guruji channel, but the timing made it amply clear who was being referred to. Plus, the follow up tweets, especially from emerging leakster Ishan Agarwal made it clear the debate was about Technical Guruji.

https://twitter.com/ishanagarwal24/status/1089872876675706882

https://twitter.com/ishanagarwal24/status/1089874370749755392

Many others commented on Manu’s tweet disapproving tech vloggers/bloggers taking center stage at product launch events.

Wow, Thats Great, Atleast Someone in the Company belives in Tech Youtubers Like Us. And yes this type of advertising is completely not acceptable.

— The Tech Star (@techstarsrk) January 28, 2019

So true,
I agree ,
He has changed 100% ,
Actually I'm beginning to hate him for misguiding his audiences by taking business partnership and money as his first preference.

— Sandeep RN (@sandeep_rn) January 28, 2019

You were completely biased and paid in samsung event and in recent m20 video
It seemed clear
Telling only good specs and not telling that many good alternative are there
Even selfie, processor are bad
You could have told all these things!
These are neither against nor for samsung

— Ansh Jindal (@jindal_ansh__) January 29, 2019

We reached out to Gaurav to know what they think about this ongoing debate, but haven’t received a response so far. We’ll update the story as and when he responds. Meanwhile, here are a couple of his recent tweets:

Do let us know what you think about tech influencers taking center stage at product launch events. Use the comments section to share your thoughts with us.

Update 1 (January 30)

Today, Gaurav Chaudhary aka Technical Guruji posted a pic of a broken Redmi Note 7 saying it’s build quality isn’t good.

If you take a look at comments to this tweet, you’ll see Gaurav is being severely trolled, as almost everyone is seeing this test as an indirect reply to Xiaomi exec Manu Kumar Jain’s tweet we originally highlighted in this story.

Here are some of the replies (use translation service if you don’t understand Hindi):

https://twitter.com/active_binay/status/1090519430994583552
https://twitter.com/srsantanu36/status/1090520979699228672
https://twitter.com/acidkidrock/status/1090522901827203072
https://twitter.com/TalkwidAbad/status/1090535580117528576
https://twitter.com/ishanagarwal24/status/1090533519632285696

Check out the complete thread by heading here.

Update 2 (January 30)

In a video titled Redmi Note 7 Unboxing & First Look – “POWERFUL” Performance, “WEAK” Design, Technical Guruji channel owner Gaurav Chaudhary does a bend test on the device and breaks it by using his hands.

As you can see in the video below, the YouTuber says this was unexpected as Samsung’s marketing videos for the phone make it seem it’s very hard to break the phone. Take a look at the video and share with us your thoughts on what Gaurav says in the video:

Meanwhile, emerging leakster Ishan Agarwal has shared what he thinks about this video. In a tweet, Ishan notes:

https://twitter.com/ishanagarwal24/status/1090556249702313985

Here are some other reactions:

https://twitter.com/Sudhanshu1414/status/1090557421704044544
https://twitter.com/ratneshkumar684/status/1090556164905959424

Update 3 (January 31)

Technical Guruji found and shared another Redmi Note 7 build quality test video:

Update 4 (January 31)

Gaurav says he did a bend test on this device due to the claims Xiaomi made in their marketing videos. If any other brand will make such claims, he’s ready to do a similar test on their device as well. He then adds he’ll do more such tests on the Redmi Note 7.

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