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DamageX · 01-14-2012, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Conclusion

Since October, Google?s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality?s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.

Furthermore, they now seem to have outsourced this operation from Kenya to India.

When we started this investigation, I thought that we?d catch a rogue call-centre employee, point out to Google that they were violating our Terms and conditions (sections 9.12 and 9.17, amongst others), someone would get a slap on the wrist, and life would continue.

I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents.

Google is a key part of our business strategy. Mocality will succeed if our member businesses are discoverable by people via Google. We actually track how well our businesses place on Google as a key metric, and have always regarded it as a symbiotic relationship. We are in the business of creating local Kenyan content that Google can sell their adwords against. More than 50% of our non-direct traffic comes via Google (paid or organic). For us, the cost of going elsewhere is NOT zero.

Furthermore, we spend a very significant sum on advertising with Google Kenya. I wouldn?t be surprised if we are one of their largest local customers, between Mocality and our sister site Dealfish.co.ke.

Kenya has a comparatively well-educated but poor population and high levels of unemployment. Mocality designed our crowd sourcing program to provide an opportunity for large numbers of people to help themselves by helping us. By apparently systematically trawling our database, and then outsourcing that trawl to another continent, Google isn?t just scalping us, they?re also scalping every Kenyan who has participated in our program.

I moved to Africa from the UK 30 months ago to be CEO of Mocality. When I moved, Kenya?s reputation as a corrupt place to do business made me nervous. I?ve been very happily surprised- until this point, I?ve not done business with any company here that was not completely honestly conducted. It is important for global businesses to adapt to local cultural practice, but ethics are an invariant. As a admirer of Google?s usually bold ethical stance around the world, to find those principles are not applied in Kenya is simply? saddening.

Someone, somewhere, has some questions to answer.

Google, what were you thinking? Mocality Kenya