Comments for FreeRice: Legit or Not, It's Fun

FreeRice: Legit or Not, It's Fun

2007-11-07T20:44:47Z

FreeRice.com is a simple website that you'll enjoy spending a few minutes on. It's a word game, monetized by Cost Per Action affiliate ad links, with a social justice twist. Those are just the boring details, though, and it's probably a scam.

The site asks you to define a series of words, with multiple choice answers, and ranks your vocabulary profficiency over time. The gimick is that for every word you define correctly, FreeRice.com says it will donate the cost of 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.

Is This For Real?

How does this happen? The big brand advertiser logos at the bottom of the page are paying for the rice, the site says. Those ads appear to be Cost Per Action ads from LinkShare. In other words, the ads only pay when the FreeRice visitor clicks through the ads and make a purchase. They pay quite well in those circumstances, though.

]]> In order to track purchases, which aren't made through the kinds of affiliate URLs you see from Amazon affiliates, for example, LinkShare puts a cookie from linysyergy.com on your browser. I have no problem with cookies myself, I like them, in fact - but a quick look around the web indicates that many people find Linksynergy cookies distressing.

No Really, Is This For Real?

The site doesn't appear to be officially affiliated with the UN at all, it appears to have been started by a man named John Breen. Breen launched the website Poverty.com early this year; it's a bare bones shell of a website with a snazzy looking domain name. It could well lend legitimacy to any number of affiliate campaigns like FreeRice.

What's the cost of a few grains of rice? Nearly nothing. Is it a worthwhile investment in exchange for pushing CPA ads at do-gooder word-nerds? It might be a great investment - it might be a scam.

Let's say there's 29000 grains of rice per pound (long grain white, per Producers Rice Mill) and let's say a pound of rice costs 70 cents (that's good rice, probably not what the UN is distributing). What's the math? At ten grains per click, FreeRice.com is donating 20 cents per 1000 clicks. Are they making more than that from these brand name CPA ads? I'm willing to guess that they are. If I'm getting the numbers wrong here, please someone let me know. At the very least, the site has an obligation to show us how much they are bringing in - not just how much rice they've donated.

One way or the other, it's a fun site to spend time on. It's probably also a money maker for the man behind it.

Comment from Gunnar Lindberg √Örneby on 2007-11-07

2007-11-07T22:27:48Z

Somehow I get the feeling that this is some sort of manual crunching service for hackers. The visitor/player sort of do the job for them. The again, what do I know :)

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2007-11-07

2007-11-07T22:33:59Z

Gunnar, could be - but again, it is fun, is it not?

Comment from Robert Dewey on 2007-11-07

2007-11-08T00:54:58Z

I don't know if it's legit. I mean, I'm still at a vocab level of 26, and I've donated close to 2500 grains so far. I haven't dropped below a vocab level of 20...

In fact, the vocab words are starting to repeat...

Comment from Joe Lazarus on 2007-11-07

2007-11-08T04:09:40Z

While I agree that the person running this site is probably personally profiting from it, it does seem to be officially recognized by the UN organization:

http://www.wfp.org/how_to_help/Ways_to_Donate/freerice.asp?section=4&sub_section=5

Comment from Michael Woo on 2007-11-07

2007-11-08T07:14:04Z

Hmm.. the name sounds good already as I like to eat rice..

and I love their concept of rice per words :) Very innovative..

Comment from L.A. on 2007-11-08

2007-11-08T17:43:34Z

I think it's unfortunate if they website is not legit, but that just goes to show how false advertising and whatnot is everywhere these days.

Comment from madcap on 2007-11-09

2007-11-09T20:57:18Z

"At the very least, the site has an obligation to show us how much they are bringing in - not just how much rice they've donated."

I disagree. The site does not say it is non-profit. As long as it actually is donating the money it says it does to the UN program, who cares what their profit is (unless they're also receiving non-profit status).

That's between the site owners and the IRS.

Comment from hayesy on 2007-11-09

2007-11-09T23:00:47Z

If its cost per action, and I have no intention of making an action, does it help any hungry people for me to use their site?

I never understand things like that...

Comment from Doug on 2007-11-12

2007-11-13T00:11:52Z

It is completely legit.

In fact, the UN World Food Programme put out a press release last week praising the huge success of the site.

Pretty cool!

Comment from Corey on 2007-11-13

2007-11-13T14:28:47Z

Great review and observations about the site. I'm also glad to hear about the announcement about the success so far. I wonder how long they will be able to sustain that level of traffic?
It would be cool if some of the larger online game sites would make a similar pledge to an organization. Can you imagine how much of an impact Kongregate would make if they decided to donate just a penny for each game of Desktop Tower Defense that has been played?

Comment from John Mullen on 2007-11-13

2007-11-14T07:15:17Z

But is hunger in the world because of a shortage of rice ?
I don't think so. Cancelling the debt of the poorer countries is a better idea.

Comment from Andy Laurel on 2007-11-14

2007-11-15T04:53:49Z

Hi! Yes, the FreeRice site is completely legit.:) I emailed the WFP about this, cuz I started a Facebook group about FreeRice and people started to ask if its legit. They WFP emailed back and they said it is.:)

Comment from noga on 2007-11-15

2007-11-15T11:11:33Z

Its nice to donate few grains, but here is how you could make a real difference - Join the FaceBook group
Free Rice Helpers where you could download a small program that answers the questions for you! Just run it and watch your pile of rice growing. It even "presses" the ads links once in while so everyone will be happy :) Dont forget to spread the word - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7357688972

Comment from starreyes on 2007-11-18

2007-11-19T02:25:58Z

"The site does not say it is non-profit." Actually, it does. Check out the FAQ. Scroll down to where it says "Does FreeRice make any money from this?" The answer is: "No, it does not. FreeRice runs the site at no profit."

Comment from karen on 2007-11-21

2007-11-21T16:29:23Z

Whether it's legit or not, I'm very proud that I hit level 49 without cheating, when it says hardly anyone goes above 48.

Now to make 50...

Of course, the words do repeat, so that's how I know the "definitions" of some of the tougher words now, but it's not like I'm going to be using "cuisse" (thigh armor) in conversation soon.

The ones that get me are the ones that are borrowed from a language other than spanish or latin, or that otherwise don't easily break down into recognizable components.

Comment from karen on 2007-11-21

2007-11-21T16:33:17Z

Hm, I meant to say:

Of course, the words do repeat, so that's how I "know" the definitions of some of the tougher words now, but it's not like I'm going to be using "cuisse" (thigh armor) in conversation soon.

The definitions are real; my knowledge of them is what's kind of fake.

Comment from Rohan on 2007-11-23

2007-11-24T02:32:51Z

OK, I've got a couple things to say.

First off, this site is completely legit.

Second off, I think that Ricebots are cheap. They don't help you build your vocab, you get no sense of accomplishment, and (as FreeRice points out in their FAQs) they clog up the servers.

Finally... in my first run-through, I racked up 10,000 grains in 1 hour, staying at about level 45 the whole time. Boo-yah!

Comment from Jane Leemis on 2007-12-18

2007-12-18T14:58:16Z

I also have a couple things to say:

First of all freerice is a ".com" website which allows it to be a profitable site.

Second off, the idea was introduced by the creator to the WFP. The more pageviews the site has the more he profits but also more rice is donated.

But also its not an original idea, I've found a site that has the same concept: FreeFlour.com only here the questions are alot more interesting and it has better graphics.

I guess we're gonna be answering trivia questions for awhile to help the world... yay

Comment from Paul Betts on 2007-12-18

2007-12-18T21:01:45Z

It's an interesting business model, very similar to the French company Kingolotto which was a sort of lottery grid promising piddly prizes for points. It kept you going whilst throwing up sponsors, at the same time with all the promises gathering your email address. Their company and its formerly badly translated English version site 'Mediastay' were selling email addresses or 'members' to the online retailers.
It's a model that generates traffic and 'works' for the sponsors. Lets hope that Freerice makes a real contribution.