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Review.Network[1], a new blockchain project that has set out to improve online reviews and market researches, has raised US$1.4 million in seed funding from undisclosed private investors. The capital injection will be used to grow the team and develop the platform, the startup said on Tuesday.
Review.Network MVP user mobile app
Developed by Cypriot company RN Software Trustees Ltd., Review.Network was born out of the desire to solve the current broken online reviews model, CEO and co-founder Filip Karaicic, told CoinJournal.
“There are two major problems with the review industry – efficacy and transparency,” Karaicic said in a statement.
“Reports and data have proven people are more inclined to leave reviews when there is a negative experience, which means there is not an accurate representation of all experiences; and that many reviews are often fake. However, thanks to distributed ledger and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, we have figured out a way to incentivize reviews – positive and negative – and ensure their accuracy.”
According to Pew Research[2], around four in five Americans turn to reviews when buying something for the first time. But evidence shows that reviews are not necessarily all that reliable.
For instance[3], businesses or their agents may post fictitious favorable reviews for their own products and/or post fictitious negative reviews for the products of their competitors. And the case of The Shed of Dulwich[4], a fake restaurant in London that went number one on TripAdvisor last year, showed how easy it was to manipulate review sites.
According to Karaicic, there are many ways that blockchain technology can improve review platforms notably by creating transparency and auditability for reviews, making reviews community-driven, and rewarding users with crypto-tokens for contributions.
Review.Network uses blockchain technology,
