I became familiar with this internet company recently upon hearing a radio interview with a person associated with its running. After looking in to this company further there are a number of points I believe should concern other consumers regarding its overall operation.
Firstly it is hard to define what beautifulpeople.com actually is because in one sense it seems they are a dating service "romantically, people want to be with someone they are attracted to" while in another sense they seem to be also a professional business network "Business Area allows you to explore new business and employment opportunities". It seems they are more of a social networking community that uses the revenue model of a dating site.
In order to get in to their site one has to make a profile and submit a photo for consideration by existing members.in order to see the voting system of your profile you have to purchase an applicant elite membership for a fee of 1.49. Their website claims that upon making this purchase you can do a number of things "While applicants are awaiting the rating verdict, they may browse existing members' profiles and connect with them through the various communication tools on the site. These include Email, Instant Messaging, Video/Voice Chat, Board Comments and Group Discussions. I tried a number of these functions and continually received the message "Applicants can't start a conversation" again I look at the board comments which again did not open. This company by their own website are making false claims which raises a question mark on their overall operation. I would imagine that the purchase of this elite membership fee is a huge source of income for them hence the reason they believe in the concept that bad publicity is good publicity hence the stupid press release such as the number of people who were kicked off the site because they had up on weight during the holiday period. The media go in the over drive and want to speak with those involved where they generate more publicity for themselves by making comments such as they had to be removed because they "could not have fatties roaming the service" People will be curious and will try in out and this website needs such publicity to keep it going hence from their website they seem all to ready to give interviews.
Another strange concept is their willingness to show only those who voted positively and not those who voted negatively, this could potentially be done in a false sense of security that when someone is rejected it may make them more likely to reapply thus spending another small fee. This company does indeed want people to reapply "if an applicant does not get voted in, he/she may resubmit with a better profile picture and more interesting profile text" so in other words photoshop a picture of yourself and pray that nobody wants to meet you off cyber world and write a profile filled with lies to make yourself sound so interesting, what an honest bunch really.
Yes there are many I am sure who say they are members but i would imagine that some of these members have applied on more than one occasion before they were accepted and i do not even want to think about how they made their profile picture or profile content more interesting. And yes the media will give these people a platform to speak further but consumers have the power if people did not try this website it would soon go away. Yes they claim that members vote but really do you let your friends hold your wallet.
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