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Okay, so here is another extra money income review.
As a lot of you guys know I've been pretty consistently testing the waters for extra money type apps.
The latest one I've tried is an application called BIGToken. Per LinkedIn, BIGToken bills itself as: "the leading ethically-sourced identity, data and insights creation platform" (1). How their model works is consumers opt in and provide their data in return for cash. BiGToken then monetizes the data by providing it to advertisers who want opted-in first party data. Consumers provide their data by letting BIGToken read their spending history and by answering survey questions. Basically, you sell BigToken your data.
The company has about 9 million users and about 10,000 data points per user.
BIGToken was started by, businessman George Stella in 2020. BIGToken's executive team is comprise of a bunch of finance, media and entrepreneur types. All of them look pretty good on LinkedIn. The company's registration is new (in California they're registered as of 2020), but it looks like they've done a couple of larger mergers since then, so that, and their staff profiles suggests they've probably got some staying power.
Their website is here.
Overall, I give it a B +.
How BIGToken Works.
BIGToken is basically a smartphone app. You download it, sign up, and answer a bunch of questions. They typically ask single items, like 'Do you shop at ACE Hardware?" (yes/no) or "Do you shop at Bloomingdales"? (yes/no) And you answer by swiping or clicking in the app. You can also let them monitor your credit card spending for additional points. Of course you can take surveys and take advantage of partner offers, like most other apps in this space.
I've been spending about 5 to 7 minutes a day with the app for the last month or so and so far I've made about $30.
It takes about a week to get paid via Paypal.
Here is what the app looks like:
BIGToken Downsides
BIGToken isn't perfect. Here are some of the downsides:
First, payment takes a few days to hit your Paypal account.
Second, BIGToken has a relatively low ROI as measured by compensation on a per-question basis. Each question is valued at between 3 and 6 cents. This isn't as good as apps like 1Q or CitizenMe but its better than alternatives like Streetbees.
Lastly, I'll just close this out by raising the question - is actively generating data and selling it a good use of your time? For 3 to 6 cents per question, maybe its better to just hook up an app that passively monitors your spending and instead focus your time on your day job or developing higher ROI skills.