

Ask HN: Evil but brilliant business models? - raquo

Think Swoopo (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001196.html) or Demand Media (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia).<p>Do you know any other examples? What do you think about the evilness of these? Is it unethical or is it a normal use of free markets?
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ErrantX
I cant decide over Demand Media; I mean as I read it they dont necessarily
provide really _bad_ content (though not great content either).

On the other hand they are employing a reasonable number of people and
spreading some good money around (so it's not like they treat the content
providers wholly unethically).

It feels like one of those borderline business models which is actually ok but
could very easily slide the wrong way.

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mtholking
Get Satisfaction <http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-
else>

~~~
raquo
Note that it "hijacks" search engine result pages just like Demand Media
does... The source of evilness is different though.

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callmeed
_"Is it unethical or is it a normal use of free markets?"_

Are those mutually exclusive?

Are you asking about business models that are unethical/immoral but legal?

Those are pretty good examples with regards to Internet companies. I think you
can find just as dubious actions in the finance industry. From charging $30
for a $1 overdraft to raising credit card interest rates at whim ...
hopefully, new regulations will change that.

~~~
raquo
Not necessarily legal, just brilliant (the majority _are_ legal I think).

From finance you reminded me about these nifty tricks:
[http://www.themistrading.com/article_files/0000/0348/Toxic_E...](http://www.themistrading.com/article_files/0000/0348/Toxic_Equity_Trading_on_Wall_Street_12-17-08.pdf)

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mbrubeck
Scientology.

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wmf
Evil regulatory arbitrage is in the news thanks to AT&T and Google:
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/googles-response-to-
fcc...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/googles-response-to-fcc-inquiry-
we-now-restrict-calls-to-less-than-100-phone-numbers/)

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JimmyL
Inkjet printer cartridges/Gillette Fusion razors/battery-powered electric
toothbrushes/etc. (all the same model in different guises)

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noodle
automatically generated spam blogs. i hate running across them, but people
make some serious $ off of them.

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earl
The domain tasting companies -- I read a profile of one, whose name I
unfortunately have forgotten, but this company seemed to have a ~$17MM annual
run rate by bulk purchasing domain names, running ads on them, and returning
the ones that didn't generate enough income during a trial week. Really really
scummy business, and stupidly lucrative -- the founder was running the
operation with himself and two employees.

~~~
JimmyL
I recall something about ICANN changing the rules to prevent this from working
anymore, no?

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Sapient
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=761235> which links to
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10309051-38.html>

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joeycfan
ah - the Goldman Sachs thread...

