FreeRice – Play this simple internet word game to donate rice!

The news about this excellent website was sourced from the BBC, and I have to admit it is a simple but very compelling game, once you factor in the extra bonus of helping to donate rice via United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) !

The concept is surprisingly simple – you are given a keyword, and then asked to select one from the 4 available word selections that best-matches your keyword. An example is

supplemental means|
1. auxiliary
2. nasty
3. convulsive
4. illegal

For every question you do get right, you donate 10 grains of rice as well as increasing your ‘vocab level’. The higher your level (note that this has to be in one sitting – ie. don’t browse away from the page as the cookie settings do not save your progress) the more complicated the question.

The genius in a sense, is how this website actually funds the donations, and clicking on their FAQ reveals how it is done:

Who pays for the donated rice?
The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice.

I suppose one shouldn’t be too surprised by this innovative use of online advertising revenue: the BBC article mentions that FreeRice is the brainchild of the US online fundraising pioneer John Breen.

p/s: Since it was picked up by the BBC, many other news agencies have also posted news briefs about this phenomenon, which started out with just 830 rice grains donated on its first day, and has just reached it’s first billionth donation.