New web platform Bugscore aims to rate every company, product and service on the planet and to make a fortune for its young co-founders.
Cypriot Elena Drakos says her dream is to overtake Trip Advisor and Facebook as the go-to website for recommendations. Building on the success of Facebook, where ‘likes’ from trusted friends can influence buying patterns and drive crowds to social events, Bugscore also has the potential to boost or ruin reputations.
Like US college site http://blog.ratemyprofessors.com/ the interface invites negative as well as positive feedback. It has privacy settings so you can criticise anonymously if you choose. A qualified accountant, Drakos saved for two years to fund the launch of Bugscore and hopes it will soon enable her to give up the day job. She says it fills a gap in the market because other reviewers’ websites and blogs cover only a narrow niche, whereas Bugscore offers a wide range of lifestyle choices all rated by people you know and trust, since the website imports contacts from your other social networks (with your permission). FI asked about the business model, and Drakos replied that the wealth of data and recommendations would be of great value to commercial companies as a rich source of market research. So it seems that data harvesting will be a major revenue stream, with premium paid membership also bringing in small sums in subscriptions. Bugscore extract Here’s how news of his divorce is affecting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on the Bugscore ratings website www.bugscore.com
