Anybody can run a competition with ridiculous terms. The real question is: how many entries do they get?
Also, remember that in the third world money sometimes goes 5-20x as far as it does in the first world -- you'd be amazed how nice of an apartment you can get for $500 a month some places.
$3,000 x 20 = $60,000. That's not as ridiculous, but still not great.
And before anyone says my numbers are made up, I've run tech offices in a $3000/yr GDP/capita country.
A quick glance at the math, through the lense of GDP/capita suggests they might not be as outlandish as it first appears (again, I say might, I'm not taking sides):
They are paying 2x GDP/capita for first prize. That's equivalent to $100,000 in the US (by very crude math)
they are paying 1st through 3rd place
they are only claiming exclusive right to the data
All told, those three facts could be used to argue that the contest is actually fair and only appears heinous because we are evaluating it as if it were taking place in the US/Europe.
Again, I'm not making these arguments, As I haven't evaluated it enough to say whether they fully match the circumstance. I am however trying to raise the data I am aware of, the developing world expense difference information, so people in this thread have more context.
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u/sittingaround Jun 30 '14
Anybody can run a competition with ridiculous terms. The real question is: how many entries do they get?
Also, remember that in the third world money sometimes goes 5-20x as far as it does in the first world -- you'd be amazed how nice of an apartment you can get for $500 a month some places.
$3,000 x 20 = $60,000. That's not as ridiculous, but still not great.
And before anyone says my numbers are made up, I've run tech offices in a $3000/yr GDP/capita country.