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| Type of site | Click-to-donate site |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Rome, Italy |
| Owner | The World Food Programme |
| Created by | John Breen |
| URL | freerice.com |
| Commercial | No |
Freerice is a free online game and learning tool, that allows players to raise rice to fight world hunger while learning through educational, multiple-choice games. For every question the user answers correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme.
The available subjects include English vocabulary (the original subject with which the game launched), multiplication tables, pre-algebra, chemical symbols (basic or intermediate), English grammar, SAT, basic foreign language vocabulary for English speakers (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), human anatomy, geography (flags of the world, world capitals, country identification and world landmarks), the identification of famous artwork, and literature (classic and popular books). As you answer questions, your total score is displayed as a mound of rice and the amount grains.
History
The website went live on October 7, 2007 with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day. The second word in its name was originally capitalized as "FreeRice."
On 20 November 2007, the WFP launched a campaign to "feed a child for Thanksgiving," encouraging internet users "to take time out from traditionally the busiest online shopping period of the year and help the hungry by playing phenomenally successful web-based vocab game, FreeRice."
For a brief while, the amount of rice donated per correct answer was increased to 20 grains, though this was reduced to 10 grains of rice per answer within a few months.
In March 2009 the FreeRice website was donated to the UN World Food Programme.
Freerice 2.0 launch
In September 2010, the UN World Food Program launched a new version of the game with social networking, groups, rankings and achievements. As part of the launch, the site dropped the second capitalization in its name, going from "FreeRice" to "Freerice."
Freerice Language Versions
In 2011, Freerice launched new language versions of the website in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and Korean, allowing users to play the popular game across a number of subjects in their own language for the first time. Freerice China is currently offline, as the World Food Programme has ended its contract with the partner responsible for building and maintaining it.
Sustenance
Using the "click-to-donate" model, for every correct answer selected a sponsored advert is displayed below the questions to cover the cost of the grains raised. The total funds raised through the sponsored adverts covers the cost of the rice donated. All the costs for running the website are covered by the site owner, the United Nations's World Food Programme or vendors supplying their services free of charge. The donations are distributed by the(WFP). Following the earthquake in Haiti, nearly 6 billion grains were donated to help communities there, however, the most common countries receiving rice are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Bhutan, Uganda, and Nepal, even though Freerice can travel all over the world (as of early 2008). By this time, the site's creator had given over US$213,000 to the WFP which encouraged people to visit freerice.com.
Effectiveness
In its first ten months of operation, Freerice donated over 42 billion grains of rice. One month after the inception of the viral marketing program, users had earned enough points for one billion grains of rice. The United Nation's World Food Programme stated that this amount could feed 50,000 people for one day, since it takes 400 grams or about 19,200 grains of rice to feed one adult for a day. Using this calculation, enough rice was donated in 2008 to feed over 6,000 people daily for each day of that year. Since its inception, as of March 16, 2012, Freerice players had earned sufficient rice to feed nearly 5 million people two meals for one day.
Awards
- Digital Communications Award 2011 - Best Corporate Game
- TIME Magazine - 50 Best Websites 2011
- 15th Annual Webby Awards - Honoree
- 2010 Parent's Choice Awards - Online Learning
- TIME Magazine - 50 Best Websites 2008 -
- Yahoo! Pick of the Year 2007 – Charity Category – Winner
- Berkman Award to Freerice.com creator, John Breen. He was recognized with a Berkman Award on May 16, 2008 for creating Freerice.com. At the Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s tenth anniversary gala dinner, recipients of the Berkman Awards were chosen for their outstanding contributions to the Internet’s impact on society over the past decade.
Monthly count
2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| October 2007 | 537,163,380 | 537,163,380 |
| November 2007 | 4,768,969,790 | 5,306,133,170 |
| December 2007 | 6,948,988,060 | 12,255,121,230 |
2008 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| January 2008 | 4,551,581,980 | 16,806,703,210 |
| February 2008 | 3,893,361,180 | 20,700,064,390 |
| March 2008 | 4,109,191,320 | 24,809,255,710 |
| April 2008 | 5,614,647,060 | 30,423,902,770 |
| May 2008 | 4,657,641,260 | 35,081,544,030 |
| June 2008 | 3,043,677,360 | 38,125,221,390 |
| July 2008 | 2,046,077,880 | 40,171,299,270 |
| August 2008 | 1,918,976,960 | 42,090,276,230 |
| September 2008 | 3,149,870,660 | 45,240,146,890 |
| October 2008 | 3,739,408,120 | 48,979,555,010 |
| November 2008 | 3,678,546,760 | 52,658,101,770 |
| December 2008 | 3,539,642,160 | 56,197,743,930 |
2009 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| January 2009 | 2,416,239,520 | 58,613,983,450 |
| February 2009 | 1,663,509,530 | 60,277,492,980 |
| March 2009 | 1,830,287,650 | 62,107,780,630 |
| April 2009 | 1,478,963,720 | 63,586,744,350 |
| May 2009 | 1,403,545,670 | 64,990,290,020 |
| June 2009 | 929,906,500 | 65,920,196,520 |
| July 2009 | 652,730,310 | 66,572,926,830 |
| August 2009 | 787,320,460 | 67,360,247,290 |
| September 2009 | 1,310,200,000 | 68,670,447,290 |
| October 2009 | 1,611,699,490 | 70,282,146,780 |
| November 2009 | 1,426,271,040 | 71,708,417,820 |
| December 2009 | 1,262,727,060 | 72,971,144,880 |
2010 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| January 2010 | 1,451,006,720 | 74,422,151,600 |
| February 2010 | 1,281,469,630 | 75,703,621,230 |
| March 2010 | 1,474,236,720 | 77,177,857,950 |
| April 2010 | 1,257,599,650 | 78,435,457,600 |
| May 2010 | 1,273,109,000 (+1,410) | 78,562,768,500 (+1,410) |
| June 2010 | 690,482,290 (+5,800) | 79,253,250,790 (+7,210) |
| July 2010 | 441,562,950 (+20,430) | 80,840,611,840 (+27,640) |
| August 2010 | 605,922,360 (+18,155,100) | 81,446,534,200 (+18,182,740) |
| September 2010 | 671,694,660 (+476,215,490) | 82,118,228,860 (+494,398,230) |
| October 2010 | 1,240,673,400 | 83,853,300,490 |
| November 2010 | 1,210,463,170 | 85,063,763,660 |
| December 2010 | 1,106,244,500 | 86,170,008,160 |
|
^* FreeRice and Freerice 2.0 kept separate totals before October 2010. The above, where noted, displays the amounts from the original followed in parenthesis by those from 2.0. Both totals have since been merged. | ||
2011 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| January 2011 | 1,081,862,010 | 87,251,870,170 |
| February 2011 | 1,145,741,650 | 88,397,611,820 |
| March 2011 | 1,191,406,110 | 89,589,017,930 |
| April 2011 | 1,287,749,600 | 90,876,767,530 |
| May 2011 | 1,182,438,930 | 92,059,206,460 |
| June 2011 | 680,929,280 | 92,740,135,740 |
| July 2011 | 308,028,170 | 93,048,163,910 |
| August 2011 | 227,231,370 | 93,275,395,280 |
| September 2011 | 235,987,700 | 93,511,382,980 |
| October 2011 | 260,421,860 | 93,771,804,840 |
| November 2011 | 289,236,090 | 94,061,040,930 |
| December 2011 | 327,062,030 | 94,388,102,960 |
2012 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Month | Monthly grains of rice donated | Overall grains of rice donated |
| January 2012 | 274,112,160 | 94,662,215,120 |
| February 2012 | 337,506,130 | 94,999,721,250 |
| March 2012 | 344,204,120 | 95,343,925,370 |
| April 2012 | 294,483,280 | 95,638,408,650 |
| May 2012 | 283,503,640 | 95,921,912,290 |
| June 2012 | 201,249,150 | 96,123,161,440 |
| July 2012 | 182,698,120 | 96,305,859,560 |
Total All Dates: 96,305,859,560
Milestones
- October 7, 2007 – Freerice launches with 830 grains of rice donated on its first day
- November 10, 2007 – Freerice breaks the one-day 100,000,000-grain milestone with 122,377,240 donated grains
- November 28, 2007 – With continued sponsor support, Freerice doubles the number of grains donated for each correct definition from 10 to 20
- December 17, 2007 – Freerice breaks the one-day 300,000,000-grain milestone with 358,559,540 donated grains
- December 19, 2007 – 10 billion grains donated in total
- April 2, 2008 – 25 billion grains donated in total
- November 11, 2008 – 50 billion grains donated in total
- September 2010 – a new version of the game was launched with social networking and group functionality
- January 2011 - 85 billion grains donated in total
- June 2011 - A Spanish version is launched
- September 2011 - A French version and Italian version are launched
- October 2011 - A Chinese version is launched
- December 2011 - A Korean version is launched
- January 2012 - Over 94 billion grains donated in total and over 1 million registered players
- February 2012 - The first official World Freerice Week was held, and two new subjects launched (World Landmarks and Human Anatomy)
- April 2012 - Launched an SAT subject
References
- "Freerice.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
- "Feed a child for Thanksgiving".
- Freerice in WFP's video log (accessed on February 7, 2008).
- "Web game provides rice for hungry". BBC News. 2007-11-10.
- http://www.slideshare.net/GreenBeingNancy/400-grams-of-rice
- "Total Donations By Date". Archived from the original on 2008-03-26. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- Find of the Year 2007, Category Charity (accessed on February 7, 2008).
- http://web.archive.org/web/20101207184318/http://www.freerice.com/frmisc/totals
- http://freerice.com/frmisc/totals
External links
- Freerice
- Freerice Donation Totals
- Spanish Freerice
- French Freerice
- Italian Freerice
- Korean Freerice
- WFP on Freerice
- World Food Programme