Re: [crx] Paying for downloads?

[Simeon Vincent]

The Spam and Abuse policy states:

2. Developers must not attempt to manipulate the placement of any extensions in the Chrome Web Store. This includes, but is not limited to, inflating product ratings, reviews, or install counts by illegitimate means, such as fraudulent or incentivized downloads, reviews and ratings.

IMO the example you outlined sounds like a pretty clear violation of the policy. On a directly related note, I've deleted your original post because of the affiliate link you included. 

Simeon - @dotproto

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 3:21 AM John <exweb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi there,

My understanding is that Google/Chrome do not allow for you to offer a paid incentive for someone to download a browser extension - but I have seen others do this, for example Swagbucks who say this in their email when you sign up:

[affiliate link & promo redacted]

Just want to understand - is this allowed?  Or is it a gray area?    Would like to do something similar but don't want to risk our extension being removed from the store.

Thanks

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[Pavel Exarkhopoulo]

The policy is too broadly written. "Incentivized" does not necessarily mean "real or virtual money will be paid". For example, these quotes from real Chrome extensions are incentives to download and use: "Makes JSON easy to read.", "[...] helps you to increase your productivity and gain more income in freelancing World.", "Earn Cash Back with just one click and say goodbye to coupon hunting. The [...] browser extension does all the work of finding the deals. You just shop and save." etc. etc. etc. Google should either rewrite the policy to be more on point, or start blocking all extensions that contain any kind of "incentivized" language.

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[Cuyler Stuwe]

I think everyone generally "gets" that "incentivized" means "lured in by an incentive that's not inherent to the purpose of the tool itself".

That's just common sense.

At some point, if you have to explain everything that's plain common sense, you end up with a document that's mostly meandering noise.

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[Pavel Exarkhopoulo]

If it were common sense, no policy would need to be written.

Regarding "not inherent to the purpose of the tool itself" and Swagbucks, an approved extension, mentioned earlier in the thread. What Swagbucks does is it gives a registered user swag bucks (aka points) as he/she shops. It literally invites one to do so on their site: "Earn SB". So giving someone 25 SB (virtual money) for downloading it is exactly "inherent to the purpose of the tool itself". I.e. it is not a violation of the policy as written.

[John]

Thanks for these comments.  Revisiting this today as I saw that Honey had an affiliate program on CJ, where they are offering $1 for each download of their desktop extension (and $0.25 for mobile) and it reminded me that I posted this thread.  Appreciate that offering another company money via an affiliate program is different from offering customers an incentive though is most likely within the rules.  Honey also seem a bit of a poster child of the Chrome Web Store - I think pretty much always being featured on Chrome Store Homepage.

Under the Spam Policy FAQ, it states this:

Can I provide incentives for users to download my extension?

No. The offer of incentives to download a Chrome Web Store extension is not allowed. For example, a game should not award in-game bonuses for installing an extension. The features of your extension should be incentive enough.

So I think with the Swagbucks example I originally posted - giving the customer an incentive for points is clearly against the T&Cs (as how is that different from the game offering an in-game bonus?) - but it seems that this is not enforced.   Offering an affiliate program though I think is likely fine - as it's just a form of marketing (like they did with sponsoring Mr Beast back in the day) although I'd be interested in knowing if there is a differing view certainly.