Review co-workers, friends or strangers with Peeple app
Founders of program described as Yelp for people find themselves surrounded by controversy
A new app designed to allow people to rate anyone they’d like — for whatever reasons they’d like — has come under heavy criticism, even before it has officially launched.
Describing itself as a “positivity” app and initially only available on iOS, Peeple allows users to rate other people professionally, personally and romantically with a five-star rating similar to other reputation management sites such as Yelp or RateMDs.
Positive ratings would go up immediately, but twostar ratings or lower would initially be sent to the person being rated for a 48-hour period, where that person could attempt “to work it out with the user.” Reviews would remain live on the site for a year.
The app has been in development for at least three months, led by Canadian marketer Julia Cordray and her U.S. business partner Nicole McCullough. It’s asking interested users to sign up for a beta test and is aiming for a November launch. According to a Washington Post article, the company is valued at $7.6 million (U.S.).
“People do so much research when they buy a car or make those kinds of decisions,” Julia Cordray, one of the app’s founders, told the Washington Post. “Why not do the same kind of research on other aspects of your life?”
The firestorm online has been intense. Many users referred to the founders as Mean Girls, or compared them to Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical company CEO who recently came under fire for increasing the price of a life-saving drug.
Many on Twitter wanted to give the founders a taste of their own app:
“I wonder if Julia Cordray will be the first to get a negative rating for having the gall to impose this invasive app on us?” tweeted @Ray_devlin.
Others worried about how the app’s method for signing others up could be used for abuse, or complicate relationships where harassment has been an issue.
“Have Nicole McCullough & Julia Cordray NEVER watched the news? Have they NEVER heard ANY details of cases of stalking, rape or homicide?” tweeted @jskylerinc.
Some users also appeared to have posted Cordray’s phone number and personal details online.
Peeple says explicitly that it will not tolerate bullying or profanity and offending posts will pulled by the company after it has been notified.
The app requires interested users to be 21 years old, have a Facebook profile that is at least six months old and provide the app with their cellphone number.
One of the most controversial aspects is that other people can sign you up. If someone wants to rate you, they only require your cellphone number and can create your initial profile on the app.
You are then notified and told who wants to rate you. If it’s someone you don’t know, you can complain to the company. According to the site’s Frequently Asked Questions, you cannot completely opt out, although that’s a feature they are considering offering in the future.
Though Peeple could be seen as an attempt at taking online review sites to their next evolution, similar attempts have failed. Most notable is Lulu, an app launched last year that was meant to be a way for women to rate men romantically. After a furor, Lulu allowed men to opt out of the site. Klout is trying to do something similar with people’s social media feeds.
The Peeple site was up and running on Thursday morning, but was offline in the afternoon. Cordray did not respond to email questions from the Star.
Earlier in the week, Cordray commented online in response to a Calgary Herald article, saying she approaches the app with the best of intentions.
To a group of people posting negative comments about the app, Cordray responded:
“This app is actually about positivity. I’m sorry to see that it scared you so much. Our mission is to find the good in you and lift you up. If your network had the ability to talk about how amazing you all are as people . . . how much better would your life be? Would you have better job opportunities, better networking opportunities? Would you be able to protect your children and make better decisions on who to do business with and who to trust with your most valuable assets? We have spent a lot of time and research making sure that we have built integrity into this app to prevent bullying and hold people accountable to what they say.”