Human powered search startup ChaCha has been the subject of a little bit of ridicule at TechCrunch since its launch, thanks to its entertaining snafus and some issues with its business model. Despite its various problems over the years, the company has been able to raise a boatload of money, as much as $62 million, adding another $4 million to the pot most recently.
Unfortunately, some of the human “guides” who find the search results for visitors to ChaCha are taking a pay cut once again. Last summer, ChaCha implemented a “Pay-For-Performance” system, that forced guides to work five or more hours per week if they want the higher payrate (20 cents per question), which we said would alienate the site’s more casual (but accurate) users. Regular guides would make 10 cents per question. Now, ChaCha has decided to cut the rates of “Voice Transcriber” guides from 4 cents (people who transcribe voicemail questions and answers) to 3 cents per transaction, with the pay cut taking effect last week.
ChaCha said that because the startup is answering nearly 600,000 questions a day, they need a workforce of more than 55,000 guides to answer the questions properly. The startup claims that their budget is too small to compensate transcription guides with higher payout. In an email sent to guides, ChaCha said that Transcribers have enjoyed the “relative” highest pay of all guide roles, with other types of guides (i.e. the guides that answer questions) and even ChaCha headquarters staff enduring pay cuts beforehand.
We contacted the company to inquire about these cuts, and were told that the “Pay-For-Performance” system was eliminated in February and replaced with a pay system based on the difficulty of the question answered. Many of these guides are only interested in making a quick buck, which is why there are frequently poor search results. But for other guides, ChaCha is an extension of the workday, offering some relatively easy money to help supplement their incomes. Under the new compensation system answering a math question would get a guide 20 cents but answering a more simple question would only get 10 cents. This seems like an improvement to the previous flawed system, which seemed to alienate many guides who actually answer questions correctly.
Regardless, the cut from 10 to 3 cents for transcriber guides over the past year is considerable and will likely see some backlash from that faction of guides. Last year, guides were apparently not being paid on time by ChaCha.
What do you need $62m for if everything if the answers are powered by humans? It’s not like they are building massive algorithms or anything…
Um, to PAY the people ?
at $0.10 an answer that provides enough money for 620,000,000 answers….i doubt they’ve received anywhere near 5m questions.
What about money for inferstructure, marketing, overhead, admin staff, etc.. ???
The only overhead is Jason C.
Actually they’ve answered well over 27 million questions since Sept 17, 2008.
You didn’t actually read the article, did you?
“ChaCha said that because the startup is answering nearly 600,000 questions a day…”
Next week they will pay 0.00 but you get a chance to see your name printed on the site (all 55,000) along with the number of questions you answered. Such a deal!
You mean like wiki, answers.com, yahoo and mahalo already do?
Eiffel tower FTW
Does anybody know how long it takes for one of these ‘guides’ to answer a question? Are the guides actually able to walk away with a decent wage?
I am an Expeditor at ChaCha, and we make .03 cents per question. I usually expedite from 100-200 questions per minute. So that equates to around $3-$6 per hour. I work another full time job so this is just supplemental income for me.
Am I the only one who thinks this is the biggest flop recently? Please suggest other potential candidates..
as a Guide myself, it takes between 1 and 3 minutes to answer a question. The MOST I ever got in a one hour period was ~$5. Add in the time it takes to load pages and do all of the clicking and I could answer at MOST 45 questions an hour. It is a lot of effort for minimal pay which is why I have not worked as a Guide since the price cuts in May. ChaCha is a great place to work but they need to raise the pay of the Guides.
how is this thing even surviving? how are they gonna scale?
Actually, math questions are no longer worth 20 cents: since they’re now “easier” to answer (they’re not), the rate for math questions has been lowered to $0.16 per question.
Also, to my knowledge, transcribers were never paid $0.10 within the last year. It seems you may be confusing the elimination of the PFP program (resulting in a across-the-board rate cut for Generalist/Specialist Guides) with a pay-cut for transcribers. Until this month, transcribers had never had a pay cut.
“Regardless, the cut from 10 to 3 cents for transcriber guides over the past year is considerable and will likely see some backlash from that faction of guides. Last year, guides were apparently not being paid on time by ChaCha. ”
Actually I believe the Transcribers have never made $.10 a question. The information sent to you seems to be mixing positions or you do.
Alan you work for ChaCha. You can say many things about them but they always pay when promised. I guess you must have a personal thing against the company.
Actually, math questions are no longer worth 20 cents: since they’re now “easier” to answer (they’re not), the rate for math questions has been lowered to $0.16.
Also, to my knowledge, transcribers were never paid $0.10 within the last year. It seems you might be confusing the elimination of the PFP (resulting a second rate cut for Generalist/Specialist Guides) program with a pay-cut for transcribers. Until now, transcribers had never had a pay cut.
Hmm. Not quite sure how this posted twice. Sorry about that. o_O
You can read the whole “email” here:
http://guideblo...iber-pay-change
ChaCha looks like a money laundry, because under no circumstances their business model (do they have one?) will be sustainable. Total BS.
Time to outsource the guides.
Well, I don’t think even the people of India or Mexico will work for these pennies! It’s humiliating. Everyone should quit en masse and see what happens to ChaCha then.
Doesn’t their pay model violate some state or federal minimum wage requirements? They can’t all be contractors if they are given such stringent guidelines on how to operate. I know other companies (EA) ran into problems with unpaid game counselors a few years back.
Sounds like a digital sweat shop. Probably use kids cause their keyboards are smaller.
it IS a digital sweatshop, and bound to collapse if not gobbled up by a viable outfit with a sound business plan. and soon.
I really love the concept of ChaCha. However the company is run by people who have no idea of how to treat it’s guides. The pay is low. The employee forum if full of sniping and hatred. Answer quality is low because they hire anybody. What I hope will happen is Google will buy ChaCha and take over everyday operations. Then you will see the great idea in action.
I’m a ChaCha expeditor. I make barely anything for how much work I put in. I’m very intelligent, but couldn’t pass their guide test, so I’m stuck as an expeditor. I really am not fond of this service anymore. I loved it when it was unlimited or even 20 a month. Now they’ve let me have 2 questions on my new number and want me to pay for more. With all the ads they flood my text inbox with and charging for anymore than 2 questions, it’s ridiculous. And 2/3 of the time, the answer is nothing like what I was looking for. As an expeditor, I know exactly how to ask a question clearly, and with proper grammar, but still the guides cannot seem to get it right.
Lousy company, lousy service.
I am an Independent Contractor for ChaCha. I have always gotten paid what I have earned. As an expeditor I usually make between $5-6 an hour. It may seem low, yes. However, I do NOT pay for gas nor do I have to pay for child care.
ChaCha is awesome in my book