Nov 29, 2001 12:33 PM
928 Views
(Updated Mar 20, 2002 09:31 PM)
What prompted me to write this review?
Few reviews in last one week have highlighted some good and bad about MouthShut. This is community of “Thinking people” so when you expect them to talk about others you can’t stop them thinking about yourself.
What we need to probe?
1.How was MouthShut started?
2.Motto behind MouthShut and where does it stand in Indian scene.
3.They call it “Get paid for writing reviews on products and services”. ? From where will they earn, ?? Can they Pay, ???Will they pay…….
4.How reliable is MouthShut Administration?
Now let us try to go one by one.
Mouth Shut is a brainchild of Faisal (CEO of mouthshut) that is now functional for over one and a half year. Was this his original creation?, may be not as there are several websites on net on similar background. But he got best out of all such websites into a product now promoted and presented as MouthShut. As most of the members on MouthShut must have tasted other similar sites, as being called as “E” or “C” by some members. I am sure they know MouthShut scores far above those sites when it comes to browsing. Categories in MouthShut are visible and are well planned, user friendly. Points earned are credited simultaneously unlike in other sites that update your accounts once a day (just a example of clarity of their mind). This site does not have any annoying ads, product related links, auto pop windows (WHY??, we will talk about this later). In total an excellent browsing experience. Above all an international reach, products/services of east and west are well covered, unlike these “E” and “C” sites who are well busy talking about their own world’s products and services, So we (Indians) are total stranger to them. Trust/Distrust/Like/Dislikes/Rating system is no unique to MouthShut; it is same as to others.
Why I talked all this is because I wanted to conclude that censors posed by MouthShut only show their insecurity. My message to them is they have the power to fight with them they have the best, above all they have their members trust with them. If they are also censoring M2M mails it is criminal, they are wasting their manpower, they should simply take out this service out of the site.
Motto of this website is purely commercial. I am no e-biz expert to comment on it. But it has to go something like this. MouthShut must be expecting revenue from launching and promoting products, for which you need good user database; potential buyers among them are also necessary. So far direct targeting of consumer has by large failed in India, due to poor penetration of net among common public (Cost a limitation). Above all, Indian customer is not comfortable on net for buying products, fear of being cheated. In this scene MouthShut at present is basically building up their Brand Name “MouthShut”. Their primary aim is to attract people to MouthShut and glue them by the time when this commerce thing will be baked. So it is incubation period of MouthShut. In nutshell their expense must be far from their earnings. This is the reason currently we do not see much ads on MouthShut.
They lieu members by line “Get paid for writing reviews or products/services”. But actually as I have tried to explain, there has to be a source of income to pay further. This is the reason MouthShut does not have transparency in pay structure. They themselves don’t know, how much they can pay and what should be equation like.
What members want from them?
Members expect a clear statement and black and white equation of this payment structure, may it be 1 cent for 1000 points or 1 cent for 1 point, or may be nothing at the end of month. Members feel they have the right to know earning expenditure and distribution of credits. e.g. one pay site says in it’s pay bills – Total profit of month - $10000, Total points earned by all members 1000000, so you earn 100points =$1. All this depends on monthly statistics of the website.
Members who are here to write reviews are not after money. This is no click and earn scheme. They expect transparency in the system, or else they feel being cheated.
Only time can tell how reliable is MouthShut administration. But tell you, MouthShut will sustain only if it’s commercial ambitions are fulfilled, which depends on backbone structure of MouthShut incorporation. How long can it wait for the equation to work. In current scenario of economic recession it seems to be far.
P.S. All this is my imagination and hypothesis.
