SEOUL: Throngs of people have been milling seemingly aimlessly around the forecourt of a museum in central Seoul, brushing silently past each other with heads bent toward smartphones while fingers frantically tap screens - in the latest money-making trend.
Walking 10,000 steps, completing tasks such as subscribing to social media, or just tapping the screen when other users are nearby can generate up to 10 cents a time for users of financial services app Toss from South Korean startup Viva Republica.
The viral campaign has seen Toss become a frontrunner in a trend where businesses win users through cash- and points-offering loyalty apps, which have risen in popularity in an economy with high youth unemployment and surging inflation.
As many as three in four adults earn cash through such applications, showed a recent survey by job portal Incruit.
"I've only made 150 won (US$0.11) so far, but I plan to continue so I can buy coffee or pay for something using the app," said 27-year-old office worker Baek Na-young.
Some 4.4 million users have used Toss' cash-giving in-app feature since its January launch, and the number of times people open the app on handsets has increased 30 per cent, Viva Republica said.
Retiree Han Sun-jae, 77, said he had made some 50,000 won so far through the Toss app.
"My daughter works nearby and told me many people were gathering here, and that I could make more money here," he said outside the Seoul Museum of Art, where office workers gathered at lunchtime based on rumour and grapevine chitchat.
The trend shows people are going the extra mile to help overcome an increasingly dire economic situation, experts said.
The consumer inflation rate hit 5.1 per cent in 2022, the highest since 1998, with food and transport prices up 5.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively.
Some 497,000 people aged 15 to 29 in February said they were on a break from employment and not actively seeking work, showed Statistics Korea data, the most since records began in 2003.
Some experts cautioned that exchanging data for the opportunity to earn pennies could involve sensitive personal information being shared with third parties.
"While the effort to make pocket money is commendable, it could also leave people vulnerable to personal data use," said Lee Eun-hee, a consumer studies professor at Inha University. "It would be wise to consider both sides of the coin."
Next up our story of how: In COMMUNIST North Korea the DYSTOPIAN state FORCES the people to MINDLESSLY meander around to get SLAVE POINTS that they can use to buy MEAGRE COMMODITIES available to them.
Free Market Capitalist Efficiency, brought to you by an endless well of money only accessible through arcane tech-sector finance capitalism.
South Korea has been speedruning their transition to a cyberpunk dystopia for years now.
Throngs of people have been milling seemingly aimlessly around the forecourt of a museum in central Seoul, brushing silently past each other with heads bent toward smartphones while fingers frantically tap screens - in the latest money-making trend.
Walking 10,000 steps, completing tasks such as subscribing to social media, or just tapping the screen when other users are nearby can generate up to 10 cents a time for users of financial services app Toss from South Korean startup Viva Republica.
The first two paragraphs are already bleak as fuck. Reminds me of the "health incentive" apps companies push like Virgin Pulse. Basically forces employees to complete patronizing checklists like "did you drink water today? did you tell your family you love them? did you know vegetables are good for you?" and the reward is ebic points you spend on junk trinkets. You're supposedly allowed to redeem it for cash but i've yet been able to do that
So it's a shittier and even more demeaning Fiverr. :no-mouth-must-scream:
actually seen a couple people including a korean leftie scholar indicate that south korea is typically indicative of the united states in about 10-15 years in the future culturally consistently
I suspect it may already have, but not like the media would report. Media blackouts there can be brutal, just like in :amerikkka:
“I’ve only made 150 won (US$0.11) so far, but I plan to continue so I can buy coffee or pay for something using the app,” said 27-year-old office worker Baek Na-young.
The grifters did it. They found a way to make "play to earn" actually get tried in massive numbers, dubious returns and all. :doomer:
Wait so what is Toss making money from? The users are gathering data about the world or something?
To me, this seems like telemetry data and device-to-device communication. For what application, I dunno, but my guess is that this is some R&D project doing data collection as opposed to just selling it to advertisers.
My guess would be that they sell the data they gather about users to advertisers
"This customer will do any demeaning thing we tell him to for ten cents"
<tinfoil>
big touchscreen paying them off to have users reduce the lifespan of their phones
</tinfoil>It sounds like "dance for pocket change, plebs! DANCE!" :capitalist-laugh:
Maybe companies could pay them to have stuff like "be around this place [e.g. local McDonald's] tomorrow night to get 0,25x more cents per tap! Make sure to check their special offers!"
"Look, we are able to incentivize people to congregate at a location! Give us advertising revenue!"
"Ok, sure. We have infinite money via finance capitalism, so what's $.11 to make the McDonalds on the corner of 5th and Main look popular."
at this pace there should be some pro-DPRK luddites who buy into the propaganda about them living in mud huts but want that
True, but
As many as three in four adults earn cash through such applications
Sounds pretty dire if apps like these are so popular
What are some examples? Am I missing ones I might have heard of?
My first thought was this is like pokemon go but there's just money instead of gameplay as an incentive.
