The thread on Montreal Tech Watch’s Capazoo Update got increasingly surreal this week, first with their Director of Communications heralding their strategic partnership with the National Lampoon. To contact him, anyone in the press should just do so through the service he is promoting (!).
Capazoo is a multi-level marketing scheme. Like Amway and countless other MLM schemes, it turns people into money-grubbing zombies that erode our social capital.
Today one Jean-Christophe decided to comment as a satisfied customer, pleading for us to see for ourselves how fantastic and lucrative Capazoo can be. Naturally, he finishes by giving us his profile page. If we sign up after visiting it, he earns zoops. So far, he’s earned 806 zoops - or $8.06.
So I looked at the referral scheme:
For every friend you invite who upgrades to Privileged Membership, you’ll earn 100 Zoops!
For every friend you invite who upgrades to VIP Membership, you’ll earn 130 Zoops!
The Capazoo.com Referral Program lets you earn Zoops when your friends refer friends – up to four generations!
Ick. Capazoo will quickly fill up with amateur spammers looking to make a single dollar of each of their social connections. Maybe one day they’ll have Amway-style rallies and conferences. Unlike other MLM organizations that manage to stick around for years however, this socio-economic virus should peter out once they burn through their cash reserves and exhaust their possible partnerships.
I hope Capazoo goes out with a bang rather than a whimper, that it serve as a reminder to other idiots that would try similar ideas.
4 comments ↓
Anyone can contact me as well through the media room page on our site ….. The idea of promoting my page is not for me to rack up the referrals, but rather for members to get a feel for the site.
As for our referral program, it is exactly as it is outlined on the site. We are very excited about the plethora of partnerships on the horizon and again, what we’re talking about here is yet more skepticism at a different approach than the usual two guys in a garage.
If Capazoo has to take criticism for being ambitious, having a vision and trying to give its members the best chance at being valued, appreciated and rewarded, then so be it ….
Again, we’re not talking about the site itself here, which is the sad part. Members are enjoying the content and are enjoying creating their own content.
Visit www.capazoo.com/media-room.html to reach me if you are concerned that the Director of Communications is spending all of his time promoting his own profile. If you’re curious about Capazoo and the possibilities, we are always open to discussing our site and our passion.
there is another “enlightnening” comment by the way on montrealtechwatch, which shows how the founders got their funds (by hype and by luring famous people who knew nothing about tech)
my last word is that the capazoo founders are con artists
Huh, Capazoo made Mashable’s Dumbest Startups of 2007 list :P. http://mashable.com/2007/12/23/the-dumbest-startups-of-2007/
[…] I’d like to be excited about it but I smell a rat. Maybe it’s the arthritis making me cantankerous, or vague similarities with Capazoo. […]
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