▲ Polymarket
The moment U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned the word "McDonald's" during a live broadcast, George Makihara, a college student in the U.S. watching TV, cheered in surprise and opened his Polymarket account.
On his computer screen, a scene unfolded showing a $100,000 prize being won.
Recently, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have been flooded with videos like this, featuring success stories of people claiming to have made "easy money" by betting on the prediction market site Polymarket.
However, the content of the video uploaded by Makihara is completely false.
He was merely acting out a realistic scene as if he had actually won money on a fake Polymarket simulation platform.
It is true that he earned money.
But that money was not won by betting on Polymarket; it was, in fact, a "salary" provided by Polymarket itself.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on June 21 (local time) that after analyzing over 1,100 social media videos promoting Polymarket and interviewing the creators involved, it was confirmed that Polymarket has been hiring dozens of creators to mass-distribute promotional videos conveying the message that one can easily make a lot of money on its platform.
Creators, including Makihara, received between $2,000 and $3,000 per month from Polymarket but did not disclose this fact in their content.
It was only after the WSJ report began that they quietly started adding the tag "@polymarket partner."
U.S. federal advertising laws require that anyone receiving payment to promote a product must disclose their relationship with that product.
The hired creators did not actually place bets with their own money on Polymarket; they merely pretended to trade on a fake site created by Polymarket that looked like the real thing.
The WSJ reported that to ensure these videos reached Americans—Polymarket's primary market—the company also hired social media experts known as "clippers" to spread the videos created by the influencers.
Polymarket claims it has no connection to such promotional content.
However, the WSJ pointed out that Polymarket hired "Viraliti," a marketing firm that manages the "clippers" who specialize in spreading content.
The WSJ noted that this firm gave detailed instructions to the hired "clippers," emphasizing that it was important for the content not to look like an advertisement and telling them not to use words like "Polymarket" or "Poly."
According to the analytics firm Tubular, Polymarket has generated over 140 million views on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram using this type of viral marketing.
Regarding the report, Polymarket stated, "We are committed to maintaining an accurate, fair, and transparent market," adding, "As part of a rapidly growing industry, we are working to continuously improve the ways we earn the trust of and engage with our users."
(Photo: Getty Images Korea)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.