Rippln. The biggest thing since email?

Published 29/04/2013 by

That’s right – the most life changing, communication changing, perhaps economy changing, and even world changing thing since email.

I’ll be blunt. I’m going to say nothing online can come close to email in any of these stakes. Not Facebook, not Twitter – nothing. Certainly not Pinterest, MySpace or Bebo. If either of the two biggest social media hitters (Facebook and Twitter) did fold and die – which might happen when hell freezes over and the camels come skating home – then we’ll all be emailing or messaging each other just like we did before they existed – just with fewer photos of us doing something stupid in a wig, whilst holding a bottle of grog and looking slightly worse for wear.

But there is a new app out there which claims that it may well be as game changing as email when it’s released in May. It’s called Rippln – pronounced Ripplin’. Much like a stone being thrown into a pond, it conveys the idea that one seed or action (or a recommendation to a friend, more appropriately) can grow and grow so that it becomes viral incredibly quickly. The crucial bit here, though, is that Rippln is supposedly going to make all its users a load of money in the process.

But before we explore that a bit more, what exactly is Rippln? In one sentence, it’s billed as being a global communication app platform that rewards users for the ripple effect that’s created when they share information using the app. Or in more than one sentence, on their website:

“Rippln is a user acquisition model for the first ever incentivized sharing technology platform. Our unique platform has the ability to track an individual’s social influence and ripple effect across the world... and reward that user for the value they create in the marketplace… We believe people deserve…to get rewarded for the value they are creating for these multi-billion dollar tech companies.”

So say you like playing Angry Birds and then you recommend that five of your friends play it too…and then they recommend the same thing to five of their friends, who also recommend it to five of their friends and so on…then all of those people along the chain get paid for their recommendation, instead of all the money going to the game manufacturer. So you’ll be rewarded for the social media network value you create and earn an income through the “ripple” you’ve created – which, in theory, could spread across the world and therefore earn you a shed load of dosh.

Oh, dear. Doesn’t that sound like pyramid selling to you? Because it certainly does to me. So a few people earn millions and the likes of Joe Public way down the pyramid earn a few pounds a month. The lure to get in quick and be one of the “Ripple Makers” before the launch is also heightened by the fact that admittance to the scheme is by invitation only – an invitation you MUST accept within 24 hours of receipt or it becomes void. Clever.

But weirdly, you can email the company and just ask for an invitation. Sorry, how is that an invitation? Isn’t that just signing up with bells on? (Or with more admin, depending on your POV.) All this makes me very wary, particularly when, to complete the sign-up process, one needs to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Some commentators have declared this NDA to be simply a personal information-gathering exercise for marketing purposes.

Although the video is expertly produced, it also has a few pretty gaping flaws, even to my non-business brain.

First of all, given that I’m not unintelligent, I had to watch it twice to make sure I understood what Rippln actually does – and even then I wasn’t 100% certain without doing further research.

Secondly, I’m not sure how one can state that something IS going to go viral before it’s even been launched. Granted, they may have over 200,000 people signed up already, but that may well be to do with the clever marketing. And in internet hit terms, 200,000 is just a drop in the pond anyway. Quite appropriate, given the name.

The comparisons to the growth of Facebook and Twitter and the suggestion that this time YOU have the opportunity to cash in on something which will be bigger than those two social media powerhouses is bound to appeal to people’s greedier side. People like the idea of being paid for essentially doing nothing.

But I’m not here to slate something for the hell of it, so watch Rippln’s short promo video below and let me know what you think. It’s slick, I’ll say that. But as revolutionary as email? Really?