Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it earn them any money to begin with? I know the article claimed they have a revenue of $250 million a year, but unless they are somehow injecting their own ads, how does a simple redirection result in any revenue for them?
They do inject their own ads > [...] a search for “airpods” on Bing leads to a Search Encrypt search results page that has more ads than search results. A user would have to have the stamina to scroll through 10 text ads from Microsoft and then 5 image ads before coming to an organic search result
How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
21–30 of 62 posts
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#22Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google doesn't push their shopping affiliate links as agressively.
Maybe not exactly in those terms, but effectively every Google ad is logically the same and even more lucrative, as google gets paid for potential purchases unlike affiliate links which only pays for actual purchases. And if you think Google is not aggressive, search "credit card" without ad block. It is insane!
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#24Is there anything actually illegal about this? What laws are broken?
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#25This doesn't feel completely clear cut. Users installed the add-on expecting their search to change. It changes their search. Presumably it's at least preventing Google & Bing from then knowing who made the search. Whether it's truly anonymous seems a bit of a stretch. (how do they define it?)
A user who literally types in Google.com or Bing.com into their browser address bar intends to conduct a search using Google or Bing. Their intention is very clear. It is not to have their search hijacked and taken to a "private" search engine.
They also use Bing to power their search results and ads so Microsoft is still able to collect the user's data.
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do inject their own ads > [...] a search for “airpods” on Bing leads to a Search Encrypt search results page that has more ads than search results. A user would have to have the stamina to scroll through 10 text ads from Microsoft and then 5 image ads before coming to an organic search result
So is there an ad bidding system and marketplace they run with a separate user interface that requires ad buyers to login and purchase ads?
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#27> Genimous Technology Co Ltd, a public company traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under the symbol 000676, is the 12 billion CNY ($1.7 billion USD) company that is behind these extensions If you're brave, short this. Shining a light on an edge of ethical/legal business has a good chance of making their revenue dry up fast.
>>> Shining a light on an edge of ethical/legal business has a good chance of making their revenue dry up fast. Any previous case ? Having a hard time believing that a stock is driven by ethical issues
There are plenty of examples.
See the recent case of Papa John's. The stock imploded by 50% over a few months in an ethical scandal related to the founder (John Schnatter) saying the N word among other things.
Schnatter had criticized the NFL's handling of the kneeling protests that went on in relation to Colin Kaepernick, saying that it had hurt Papa John's business (they were a prominent sponsor of the NFL). Schnatter took a lot of flack for that criticism.
On a call with Papa John's marketing firm, he said this:
> "Colonel Sanders called blacks n-----s," he said, complaining that Sanders had never received backlash, according to Forbes.
> Forbes also reported that Schnatter recalled growing up in Indiana, where he said people used to drag black people from their trucks until they died. Forbes reported that Schnatter's comments were intended to demonstrate his stance against racism, but that people on the call were offended by them.
Schnatter as the founder, and largest shareholder, was forced out of the company. Papa John's sales dropped for the first time in 14 years and they slid into losing money after being consistently profitable throughout their history.
Papa John's was tied up with the NFL in a marketing arrangement, that involved them being the official pizza company sponsor for the league. That arrangement was ended in the months following all of this. Papa John's same store sales promptly nose dived as their public perception was tarnished (they tried numerous promotions to prop that up and it all failed).
In total they lost about 15% of their sales. The company removed several executives and has been working to stop the decline plus repair their brand (they brought in Shaq in a prominent way as one example, he has sparred with Schnatter a few times verbally and Schnatter continues to run his mouth about the situation publicly).
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#28so many silent business ideas. It is a win-win situation. Customers want to hide themselves behind proxy, and the company make good money from big players. Very smart!
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#29so many silent business ideas. It is a win-win situation. Customers want to hide themselves behind proxy, and the company make good money from big players. Very smart!
It's not legal whatv theyre doing.
Re: How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire
#30This doesn't feel completely clear cut. Users installed the add-on expecting their search to change. It changes their search. Presumably it's at least preventing Google & Bing from then knowing who made the search. Whether it's truly anonymous seems a bit of a stretch. (how do they define it?)
These extensions do not simply change the default search in the browser. They actively hijack searches on the Google and Bing homepages. Test it yourself in a sandbox. A user who literally types in Google.com or Bing.com into their browser address bar intends to conduct a search using Google or Bing. Their intention is very clear. It is not to have their search hijacked and taken to a "private" search engine. They al…
"Keep your searches private by redirecting searches that may be tracked to Search Encrypt, a privacy-focused search engine... For your privacy, Search Encrypt intercepts the requests if it's on our list of sites"
So it says it hijacks right in the description.
On their website for their "search engine" it says
"The Search Encrypt encrypts your search terms between your computer and searchencrypt.com. Search Encrypt is supported by sponsored ads featured on our search results page."
Which obviously (to you and me anyways, not to others) is also done at Google so there is no actual benefit other than Google doesn't get your data.
My conclusion is that, yes, they are scummy and taking advantage of fears of people to make a buck. But is it an outright scam? Not so clear.