Chinese gamers threaten keyboard maker Cherry with boycott after storm over giveaway aimed at ‘men only’

German company apologises and promises to investigate bad-tempered online exchanges with followers after promotion goes off the rails.

A German company best known for keyboards popular with online gamers faces a boycott in China after it fired back with graphic language at social media users who complained about a giveaway aimed at male customers only.

On Saturday, Cherry’s China division offered to give four mechanical keyboards away to male gamers, without any mention of women who make up a sizeable part of the Chinese gaming community.