Comments on: FreeRice: 350m pageviews and at least $320k profit

By: Callan

Callan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:44:45 +0000

There would be costs in shipping the rice and distribution, as well.

How do you find how accountable these guys are?

Also what if someone gave all direct profits to charity, but keeps the money in a bank for a month first, then scoops the interest off the top of it? And would that even be all that awful, since that money still will go through?

By: Free rice? « Because No One Asked

Free rice? « Because No One Asked — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:53:23 +0000

[...] day? How much do the sponsors pay and what percent is actually used to buy and distribute rice? Lance Wiggs has already done the math for us. As of November 2007, the site owner had spent about $30,000 on [...]

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:22:25 +0000

I noticed definitional errors too!
Some of the vocab is extremely rarefied or abstruse or archaic. I don’t think it would easily assimilate into everyday communication!
- How about “bumbleshoot” (as I recall!) meaning “umbrella?!
I don’t think of it as a scam tho’- it could just do with having more useable vocab.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:53:14 +0000

I have come across so many spelling and definition errors on this freerice website that I immediately smelled ‘SCAM’ on this one. I think I got dumber playing it.

By: Rory

Rory — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:23:25 +0000

Why do you assume that advertising revenue for freerice.com would be on a CPM basis? This is actually highly unlikely; advertisers are hardly going to pay per page view for a site which is clearly designed to keep people to keep coming back, and to generate multiple page views each time they visit. Advertisers are not stupid! It’s far more likely that Breen gets paid each time a visitor to the site clicks on an ad. The revenue for this will be much lower than your CPM estimates. I do admit that Breen’s refusal to talk openly about how much money his site generates is suspicious, but note that the site now explicitly claims not to be run at a profit, and also the WFP has repeatedly endorsed it.

By: pardunl

pardunl — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:28:00 +0000

I just heard a radio interview (PBS) with Mr. Breen about the freerice,com site. He states that he receives no profit from the free rice site. All profit is donated to the World Food Program. At this point it is over $100,000 — Not bad for people spending the occasional 10 – 15 minutes of their time. I have middle school students who like to play it at home and enjoy knowing they are helping with the food program. The radio broadcast was 11/28. I don’t know if was prerecorded If so the figures will be higher.

By: Free Rice: Addictive, but is it a scam? « Lance Wiggs

Free Rice: Addictive, but is it a scam? « Lance Wiggs — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:02:21 +0000

[...] FreeRice: 350m pageviews and at least $320k profit « Lance Wiggs Trackback on November 23, 2007 at 2:00 [...]