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Rantic.com (formerly SocialVEVO and Swenzy) is a social media marketing website that sells fake likes, followers, views and web traffic.

Background

Rantic.com was registered in 2014 by a group of internet marketers. The group also has used the names SocialVEVO and Swenzy. During an interview with Vocativ, one of five people claiming to be founders said the online business was created by "Jacob, Jerry, Juice, Alexander and Kamaruzaman". The CEO is listed as Simon Z and consumers are said to include musicians, teens, celebrities, politicians and governments, according to a New York Times and Forbes report. The website sells "fake account" services for social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, a potential violation of these sites' terms of service.

In 2014, an online threat to release nude photos of actor Emma Watson turned out to be a hoax orchestrated by Rantic. Following Watson's launch of a UN gender equality campaign, a website emerged claiming photos of the actor would be released via 4chan. When the countdown ended the site redirected users to Rantic.com where a message claimed the group aimed to shut down 4chan.

In April 2015, a Facebook engineer said the site's effort to crack down on the "small problem", coupled with an effort to help pages gain authentic followers instead, had shut down most of the fake "like" sellers. Rantic called itself one of fewer than a dozen such companies remaining, and has promised to refill any "likes" or followers lost to account sweeps by the operators of sites including Facebook and Instagram.

See also

• Devumi
• Ghost followers
• Influence-for-hire
• Social media marketing
• Viral marketing

References

1. Revesencio, Jonha (August 31, 2015). "Climbing A Mountain -- Career Advice from Simon Z, CEO of Rantic.com". The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
2. ^ Markowitz, Eric (December 9, 2014). "This guy claims to be the mastermind ..." Vocativ. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
3. Langdon, Scott (December 3, 2015). "6 Quick Tips for a Successful Startup Social-Media Campaign". Entrepreneur.
4. Carpenter, Julia (July 2, 2015). "Can we ever beat the bots? Not on Instagram". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
5. ^ Bilton, Nick (April 20, 2014). "Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online". The New York Times.
6. Hoffberger, Chase (November 15, 2015). "The new kings of YouTube botting". The Daily Dot. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
7. Alfonso, Fernando III (September 24, 2014). "The serial hoax artists behind ..." The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
8. Olenski, Steve (August 19, 2015). "8 Ways Marketers Are Being Heard In 2015". Forbes. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
9. ^ Rodriguez, Salvador (December 11, 2014). "Instagram Could Delete Up To 10 Million Accounts". International Business Times. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
10. Eordogh, Fruzsina (August 10, 2015). "Inside An Instagram Bot Farm". VICE. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
11. Roy, Jessica (September 24, 2014). "How a Fake Viral Marketing Firm Convinced the Internet 4Chan Was Going to Leak Nude Photos of Emma Watson". New York Magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
12. Huseyin Kerem Cevahir (April 17, 2015). "Breaking New Ground In the Fight Against Fake Likes". Facebook for business. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
13. Griffin, Andrew (April 20, 2015). "Facebook fake like sellers destroyed by site's efforts to clean up pages". The Independent. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
14. Griffin, Andrew (March 6, 2015). "Facebook purges 'Likes', with pages' fan counts expected to plunge". The Independent.

External links

• Official website

• Social media companies
• Marketing websites
• Public relations companies