(Yicai Global) March 16 -- Shares in 360 Security Technology dropped after its search engine unit was criticized by CCTV’s annual name-and-shame show over fake online medical adverts.

360 Security [SHA: 601360] fell as much as 4.3 percent today to CNY13.46 (USD2.07), a 52-week low, before finishing little changed at CNY14.02, a 0.4 percent drop. The broader Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 percent.

Online adverts for fake merchants and products appear in search results on popular platforms including that of 360, CCTV’s 315 Show reported yesterday on World Consumer Rights Day.

The Beijing-based company pays a lot of attention to the issues raised in the report and has already formed an investigation team to look into the ads involved and the corresponding social-networking accounts, it said in a statement today, adding that the ads are not from major clients and contribute little to overall revenue.

Fake adverts in search results became the focus of public concern in 2016 following the case of a cancer patient called Wei Zexi. Wei was diagnosed with a tumor but chose the wrong therapies after being directed toward them by search results on leading search engine Baidu. Wei later died at the age of 22. 360 said at the time it would stop promoting medical products.

But medical adverts provide a key source of revenue for search engines, Liu Xingliang, head of the Data Center of China Internet, a third-party research institute, told Yicai Global. Liu said US search engine giant Google was fined USD500 million in 2011 due to illegal medical ads, accounting for 5 percent of the company’s profit that year.

Punishment for illegal and fake internet adverts in China is comparatively mild, so the deterrent effect is inadequate, Liu added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting