US networking site pays $.10 for new members
By John Abhraham

Are some US social networking sites using Indian expertise and skills to increase their membership numbers? And consequently earning more street creed and revenue from American advertisers.  The ethics of paying Indians per sign-up, when membership is free in USA, raises many questions.

Early this month, Craiglist (http://bangalore.craigslist.co.in/mar/496877466.html) ran the following advertisement in Bangalore, India.  It read:

“Will pay for U.S. sign-ups
Reply to: job-496877466@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-03, 9:58AM IST

I am the owner of a social networking website in the United States and am looking to pay per sign-up. I will assign you a tracking reference number and will pay $.10 per US sign-up. It is 100% free to join this network, so it shouldn't be too hard to get signups. Payment will be made promptly via PayPal.

Email me if you are interested.  PostingID: 496877466”

Techgoss was intrigued at this attempt to boost the membership of an American website catering to a predominantly American audience.  America has the same level of expertise as India at ‘sending traffic’ to websites to make them more popular.  Did the advertiser come to India to keep costs low?  Or did they prefer that the American public has no knowledge of their attempt to ‘send traffic’?  Techgoss.com sent an email to the advertiser asking for more details and received the following email from California, USA

“Hi *****,

Thanks for your interest in the sign-up program.  The website is ******** and we are a community that connects ********.  We will be assigning you a tracking # and will pay $.10 for every member you sign-up.  How do you plan on sending traffic to us in order to convert to new members?  We prefer US traffic.”

Curious, is it not.  Your guess at what is going on is as good as Techgoss.

(******Techgoss note:  The email from the social networking site in California, America has the name of the executive,  name of the social networking company and even contact phone numbers.  We are keeping them hidden till we ascertain all the facts behind this intriguing case

Techgoss update:  One day after techgoss published this article, America’s leading goss website Valleywag printed a similar article identifying the company as http://www.famesource.com which connects aspiring talent with fans)