Serious question, why do B2B SaaS companies still use fake reviews on G2?

I was at a B2B conference in Austin last month and sat next to a guy who literally told me his company buys G2 reviews in batches of 50 for $500 each. He said it's just part of the game now. I get that social proof matters for landing enterprise clients, but isn't this going to blow up eventually? I saw a report that said 30% of software reviews on these sites are suspicious or fake. We spend all this time building real product value, then someone with a bigger budget just buys their way to the top of the list. It feels like the whole review system is broken when you can't trust what you read. Has anyone else run into this issue where a competitor's fake reviews actually hurt your real ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscar_hunt611d ago

I read a piece on TechCrunch a few weeks back that said G2 is aware of this but basically does nothing because it makes them look good to investors when the numbers are high. The guy at that conference sounds like a clown for bragging about it though. $500 per review is cheap, I've heard of companies paying double that for verified purchase reviews on Amazon-level sites. The whole thing reminds me of Yelp back in 2010 before they started cracking down. Eventually someone will get caught and it'll be a mess.

oscar_hunt6122h ago

Man yeah I used to think people were just being dramatic when they complained about G2 being rigged. Figured it was sour grapes from companies with bad products. But then I actually tried to get a real review removed from there and hit a brick wall while competitors with shady profiles kept climbing. Changed my mind real fast when I saw a startup with like 20 employees rack up 200 reviews in a month with zero evidence anyone actually uses their software. The whole thing is a joke now. I honestly think G2 is gonna get hit with a class action eventually once someone proves they knew about the fakes. Until then it's just the wild west.