Pyramids continued: Weblo, become a virtual governor
Yesterday, we wrote about the latest wave of Internet pyramid schemes.
We failed to mention Montreal’s Weblo, a company that sells you virtual domain names, so you can buy www.LosAngeles.com for a few bucks (even though the domain is owned by someone else on the real Web), pretend you own that city, and then begin selling off towers and other properties in that city to the greater fool who comes along to bid on it. It boasts other ways to make money.
By owning a city, you become a “major” and earn a 0.5 percent surcharge applied to every transaction in their city, so like other pyramid schemes have an incentive to get others to sign up. You get more revenue if people visiting choose to “rank” your site and if you update your site at least weekly. You’ll get a percentage point of membership fees from members who register in your city, 1.5 percent of purchase price on properties in your city, and a whopping two percent of all ad revenues on your site. (Weblo milks 98 percent). And like all good pyramids, there’s a hierarchy. If you become a “governor,” you get even more revenue. You can even become President.
There’s a video demo of the site here, created by Robert Scoble:
http://www.podtech.net/player/podtech-player.swf?bc=3efbd44bc7ca4072a5718e39f31144cc
Next Story: Bambi Francisco, the star reporter, and her conflicts
Previous Story: The Web 2.0 pyramids: Agloco, eMax and KushCash
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
