A Chinese startup named Guohe is getting netizens to engage in online social marketing ostensibly for no money – and giving them “free” McDonald’s food instead. It’s all handled via a brand new app for Android phones called Free McDonald’s wherein assigned promotion-related tasks are rewarded via a virtual currency system called ‘fruit coins.’ That’s somewhat ironic, as users will presumably be getting diabetes-causing junk food delicious burgers rather than fruit.
And so there’s a task-for-reward system that has been set-up by Guohe whereby a certain activity will earn users a pre-defined amount of ‘fruit coins.’ For example, 700 such virtual coins can be redeemed for one McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) ice cream, or 800 for some spicy chicken wings. Tasks are set by Guohe, and stem from whichever company is paying for online exposure – be it tweeting out adverts on Weibo, installing certain apps, or roping-in friends to sign up for a service (as pictured below):
Perform a task online (shown on the left) and earn virtual coins to get McDonald's 'food' in return.
The app itself also has a social element, with the ability to friend fellow users, and a leader-board so that you can see how much virtual currency some people have made.
In Chinese, the whole practice is very euphemistically referred to as a “slave trade,” and is not too dissimilar from the notorious practice of ‘gold mining’ virtual items in multiplayer online games. Presumably, users of Guohe’s app are being paid far less that their online promotions are actually worth in terms of clicks or acquired users.
It’s not clear if – but unlikely that – this is associated with McDonald’s, so Guohe might well be on very shaky legal ground using the golden arches and clown mascot on its website.
Download the Guohe app for Android from the startup’s site, or the Baidu app store.
[Source: Toumingti - article in Chinese]