YouGov – what’s in a name? Before we get started, let us say that we’re not for or against this website, or online survey platform. We’re not writing a review that praises YouGov, nor do we have anything against the website. This is an opinion piece only.
YouGov, like most other online survey platforms, offers a points or rewards system for completing surveys online. They display a points counter at the bottom that shows how many points you’ve collected. It even starts tallying points for you while you’re filling out the sign up page. How nifty!
Of course, this is how a lot of people would think or feel, until you’ve seen a few of these kind of survey websites. While they may try to provide the perspective of providing incentive for simple things like signing up a profile, what they’re doing here is basically trying to make you think you’re being rewarded for every single little thing you do – like putting in your birthday, in this screenshot. Why do they do that? It’s an effort to keep you on website. It likely works in most cases. I would say it’s likely that large percentage of people continue signing up the profile, spurred onwards by this “point counter.” If they’re not, it’s an added reason in their mind to continue signing up. That’s really what the platform designers are going for – provide incentive to keep you on the website, keep you interested.
This type of structure or plan isn’t new. In many cases, platform builders like this or anyone that has the plan to capture your data. Keep you on the website, keep you putting in your own details – the more data points they capture about you, the more it can be sold to a third party, or used for some other kind of “big data” analysis. This “big data” concept proliferates the Internet today.
Coming back to YouGov (what the heck does the name mean anyway?) they try to make the user feel like they’re more important. Ultimately they want you to fill surveys to capture data points. They likely make some money off every survey that is filled out, and then compensate you in points. This isn’t new – it’s the same model that many online survey companies use. The only differences are:
- YouGov tries to infatuate you or make you feel like you’re accomplishing something, by giving you points for everything you do. However, the way to look at this is how many points do you actually need in order to redeem for something
- The platform also tries to tell you that you can make a difference in the news, if you fill out enough surveys.
As you’d imagine, the bottom claim is false. It’s just another method used, to try and get the user or site visitor (that’s you) to stay on the website. The longer you’re on the site, the more money they make off you. This is what many people don’t understand about survey websites like this. Keep in mind every survey you do, every “point,” they give you, you’re only seeing a small percentage of the overall pie.
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Have you used YouGov? What do you think about the platform? Have you made much money on it? Why not leave a review and let us know what you think about the online survey platform. Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.