The show Jackass used to have “do not try this at home” disclaimers before every episode because too many idiots would in fact “try this at home.” A new Web site that launches today called Darejunkies is a full supporter of “try this at home.”
Darejunkies is a social networking site that allows users to create and compete in dares with a prize incentive. The site went live today and I was given the first login. It is stoooopid, which means it will probably be a hit.
Go to Darejunkies and you’ll find challenges listed by categories such as dating, embarrassment, food, etc. There are challenges like wrap yourself in peanut butter and go to a dog park, or get your grandma to tell you something embarrassing. Once you find a challenge that you think you can complete in the most amusing way, you accept.
Once you’ve filmed your challenge, you can upload it onto the site and compete with all other versions of that challenge. Users vote on the best video. Contestants are eligible for prize money every month. This month, ten winners will split a pot of $5,000. Next month, the company ups the ante to $7,500, and every month after that, it will award $10,000.
“The idea here is that it’s videos with a purpose,” said Ben Bacal, CEO of Darejunkies. “So people can grab their camera and go, ‘What do I shoot?’ Then they go to the site, find something they think they can shoot, and have some direction. We all know that every good TV pilot has a blue print.”
Darejunkies was smart enough to think ahead in terms of legally covering their behinds. You can’t just go to the site and post a challenge to get everyone to cover themselves in butter and slide down a roof. You can submit a challenge for review by the Darejunkies legal board, who will then decide which ones make it to the site.
Darejunkies has all the social networking elements: user profiles, relationships, etc. I’m not sure it’s the smartest thing in the world to let people who are prone to taking dares to socially network. I can hear my mom lecturing me about bad association right now.
So how do you make money on idiotic skits? Sponsored challenges, of course.
“Product-placement challenges is a way of bringing in advertisers into our challenges,” said Daron Niemerow, president of Darejunkies. “So we can have say, a Pepsi challenge like drink a can of Pepsi and give us your biggest burp. We’re also thinking about the Best-Of DVDs like Jackass or Girls Gone Wild for stuff that can’t make it on the Web site.”
I’m afraid. But I’ll watch.
Comments
Good, I was concerned about the legal liability aspect when I read the first paragraph. But looks like they have already thought that through.
See, you geeks need us lawyers!!!
Natalia,
You guys are slacking. I read about this company from Mashable.com a while back! I used to come here to be up to date!
Thank god you are a gorgeous Latina if not I wouldn’t be coming back here.
Yes but did Mashable have the first login for the site once it was live? Didn’t think so. Thanks.
This could greatly improve the human gene pool. Kudos all round.
My friends and I have a site called Pursudo, and in a sense I suppose it is a distant cousin of Darejunkies.
http://pursudo.com/
Call it social event coordination without the hospital visits?
Man oh man… takes all kinds.
I work on a similar site: http://www.fantasylife.net
Users create leagues with their buddies and get points for accomplishing tasks (as defined by the league commish). Kind of like fantasy sports mixed with real life.
WTH? Can someone say BUBBLE.
I heard they got the idea for the site by entering the ‘Come up with the Dumbest Website Idea’ challenge. But they didn’t realize that you didn’t actually need to build the site.
Did they get funding for this?
Natalia,
You got me there. Keep up the good work. I remember you from some articles on Hispanic Trends and Hispanic magazine.
sounds crazy!….i like it
Can someone explain to me how a single Web site can have a CEO?
Great idea. lets get go ahead and round up all the jackasses so we know exactly who they are and the mischief they are causing.
“Can someone explain to me how a single Web site can have a CEO?” - Kevin
Whether 2 or a hundred staff…organisation and leadership are still important. Better to establish a structure and culture from early.
Wish him/them all the best.
http://www.revafinancial.squarespace.com
I like realityallstarz.com, has a nicer feel to it.
I’m with Natali on this one … I think Darejunkies has the “velcro” to be big.
And unfortunately for Darejunkies, that could be it’s own undoing.
Granted, they have a legal staff that reviews “dares” before they are actually posted, but there are simply toooooo many greedy - um, I mean “hungry” - lawyers out there that are willing to jump on the first opportunity to “make a buck” … assuming there actually exists a pie to slice, which when Darejunkies takes off, there will be plenty of pie to go around … to the lawyers, that is!
(Um, our legal system is kinda silly, but basically if you can get sued and lose to a criminal whom you shot while robbing you in your own home, I’d think the prospects of nobody suing Darejunkes and winning is tenous as best?)
You consider this TechCrunch worthy? I don’t think so.
I am the number 23 user! This site is gonna be hot.
I dare somebody to scale the Golden Gate bridge and put up a massive TechCrunch banner.
DareJunkies certainly has an interesting business idea. It could fly if executed well. There are a lot of people who like to watch others doing crazy things and quite a few people who don’t mind being a “Jackass” for 30 seconds of fame.
I would think it is helpful for the company to be associated with TV shows like AFV or Girls Behaving Badly. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some videos made for the challenges on this site end up on one of these TV shows one way or another. That will at least be great marketing for DareJunkies.
I agree with Jose…Natali is hot.
Natali is right. Unfortunately, this site is going to get big for a while. And, unfortunately, people who aren’t usually dare junkies are going to become dare junkies in order to impress their online association. And, unfortunately, people are going to get hurt. I realize they have a “legal board” but that’s not going to stop some mom and dad whose son broke his leg jumping from a rooftop to a trampoline to the hard side of the pool deck from suing them. I guess it’s good for the web site that they have all this stuff on video as evidence, but that could work both ways. If the kid is screaming “I love darejunkies” as his left leg is shattering, then that’s probably not good for the website.
Sigh.
just heard about a new environmental social networking-type site on Hugg.com:
http://www.dianovo.com/
haven’t tried it yet, but it’s got a purty picture, and it’s probably less dangerous than Darejunkies.
Here’s the kicker, though, folks - when are we gonna start seeing some outrageous mashups based on all the google api’s? i mean - really outrageous stuff - like a full-fledged social networking website built primarily on the GData apis? Google Base. Personals. etc.
Gonna get hectic. 2.0 definitely hasn’t peaked yet.
Here’s another take on darejunkies, and not a favorable one:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/9606
this site has been in the deadpool for awhile now. put it there.
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