Is Cheelee a Scam?

The new SocialFi project Cheelee is a scam? This is what I thought when I first encountered the app. After all, it promises to pay users for watching content — an offer that sounds too good to be true.

With such a scam-like flavor, Cheelee has over 10 million users worldwide. This number could be seen as a sign of legitimacy, but the app's crypto elements raise concerns about whether it's just another money-grabbing scheme.

However, the platform claims to have over a million active users, adding to the confusion: who would keep coming to an app that steal from you? Seriously messed up, I decided to explore the project to eliminate this feeling and protect my readers from scams.

Basic Mechanics

Cheelee users sign up and get free glasses that let them earn coins by watching personalized content. Over three days, users can earn nearly $6 by watching content for 5 minutes a day. However, at that point, the Starting break, users can withdraw their balance or buy rarer glasses to earn more. The pricier the glasses, the higher the rewards. In my opinion, it is a pretty conventional mechanic common for most games, P2E projects, etc. Nothing special and yet nothing irritating. The earning potential ranges from x1.3 to x3.3, depending on the choice of strategy, Stability, Lucky, and Mix. Thus, a user can directly influence their income.

This setup seems fair and doesn't look like a scam since no upfront investment is needed to start earning. At the same time, withdrawals with the free glasses have an 85% fee, while other options only have a 30% fee. Still, this isn't scam-like, as many blockchain projects don't offer any trial period or initial earnings without investments. Just take the notorious project Gods Unchained, where meaningful rewards were unreal without investing in card packs. A random user on Reddit even claimed that “The barrier for entry was, historically, way too high for anyone who wanted to do more than pick a warrior and then play their cards.” Similarly, titles like Splinterlands and Battle of Guardians were criticized and described for the “more money, less fun” approach.

Social Media Userbase

Scam projects tend to have fake followers on social networks. So, I checked Cheelee's representation on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. For instance, it has 120K followers on Twitter, but the app hasn't posted much recently. This could imply inactivity or poor management, but it doesn't necessarily mean the project is a scam.

Further analysis of Cheelee's pages shows that this social network is not much into external content. This is OK, for it represents the project as a self-confident one. The funny moment is that it actually offers the so-called Social Boost program that rewards Cheelee users for representing the platform on other social platforms. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with official branding and is more similar to the word-of-mouth strategy.

Meanwhile, Cheelee seems to care about its reputation — its moderators actively respond from official accounts across various platforms. They don’t delete or report negative comments and give diverse replies. This shows that the project is alive and genuinely interested in its development.

Next, I found numerous guides and reviews about Cheelee on TikTok and YouTube, both positive and negative. This suggests real user engagement and adoption, which is usually a good sign.

Additionally, I decided to test the support and told them that I got no gains from the boxes. They responded in a few minutes and asked if the details I couldn’t provide for my case were fake. However, I appreciated how actively Cheelee responded.

Token Analysis

Cheelee has two main tokens: $CHEEL (the governance token) and $LEE (the utility token).

Currently, $CHEEL has a market cap of $745K. Its price rose from $0.80 in 2022 to $22.32 in a year and a half. Not bad for a SocialFi project.

Userbase

With 8 million users claimed, can Cheelee be blamed for the fake audience? I studied the matter and discovered that the platform has no bots. Contrary to this, it integrates strong anti-fraud measures to block fake accounts, ensuring its audience is real. Otherwise, it will not get the revenue needed from ads.

Also, as I’ve claimed in the intro, Cheele reports over a million monthly active users (MAU). To verify this, I investigated the geographic distribution of its audience. It comes primarily from Asia and Africa. These regions are familiar with crypto and tend to avoid scams, especially after negative experiences with Ponzi schemes. Also, the willingness of people from Africa and Asia to engage with referral programs and other profit-generating features makes Cheelee's MAU claims plausible.

Content

Regardless of crypto integration, short video platforms often face scrutiny over their feeds' scam-like quality. For example, Likee was criticized for inappropriate content, and Chingari literally shifted towards more adult themes. Similar platforms tend to live for one day, attracting nearly no users.

While not on par with Instagram, Cheelee's content diversity is growing organically, driven by user incentives like donations. The platform also plans to collaborate with influencers worldwide to boost content creation. If these plans are realized, Cheelee's content quality could improve significantly.

User experience

Scam projects usually don't bother much with user experience — they're often more focused on quick gains than building a sustainable platform. However, when I checked out Cheelee, I found a well-designed app with a bright design, intuitive interface, adequate onboarding, and a detailed FAQ section.

Also, the platform seems to work on its retention mechanics. Just take that it has simplified the earning mechanics, introduced more accessible glasses from $6, and allowed users to rent Cheelee glasses for free. With these, one can watch content, open boxes, and withdraw more impressive rewards than with Starting without any initial investment. The pitfall is the platform's 85% commission on withdrawal with the rental option. However, it is understandable: Cheelee can't go into the red. Also, with purchased glasses, withdrawal commission is 30%.

Ponzi

The primary worry with SocialFi platforms is that they can become Ponzi schemes, relying too much on users' constant purchases. However, Cheelee has multiple revenue streams like partnerships, in-app purchases, fees, and adds, with the last source being the core for user payments.

Also, Cheelee glasses have a lifetime of about one month of active content watching. This move motivates users to buy new pairs and prevents joint in the P2P industry cases when old users over-monetize their assets, draining revenue pools and leaving newbies without profits. Thus, in this respect, Cheelee is not a scam.

Money

Cheelee is said to have raised $37 million. These figures seem realistic, as similar projects tend to ask even for bigger sums. Just take Steemit with almost $36M raised. The good thing about Cheelee is that it has an open list of investors. So, the fact that investors trust Cheelee boosts the app's credibility.

Promotion

Scam projects typically avoid big promotions because they know that when they fail, there will be no way back. Meanwhile, Cheelee seems to be brave in this aspect. The platform spent $1 million on marketing across regions, including Africa, the USA, Great Britain, CIS countries, India, Indonesia, and Turkey.

Reputation

To conclude whether Cheelee is a scam, I checked its user reviews. They were incredibly diverse and genuinely written — something you can't easily fake with hired copywriters. Users often mention real experiences, like slow responses from Cheelee's customer support, which shows that the feedback isn't unrealistic praise. Meanwhile, scam projects are literally overflooding the web with odes.
Cheelee's figures on platforms like Google Play (4.7) and the App Store (4.5) are strong, and such things also can't be faked.

What surprised me the most was that serious media included Cheelee in their top lists. For instance, USA Today listed Cheelee among the top projects alongside heavyweights like OpenAI. Also, CHEEL secured the top spot in Metatalks' "Top 5 Promising Tokens To Invest In 2024" and ranked number one in Coincu's 2024 ranking of the best SocialFi projects. This kind of recognition is hard to ignore and adds weight to the platform's legitimacy.

While researching Cheelee, I found some overly critical articles with exaggerated claims contradicting users' words. One absurd accusation was against the team being partially from the CIS region, which doesn't make sense given that many successful figures in social media and crypto, like Pavel Durov and Vitalik Buterin, also come from there.

Conclusion

Do I regard Cheelee as a scam? Frankly speaking, I can't. Download the Cheelee app - check all the mechanics yourself! The app requires no upfront investment to start earning, and while it has high withdrawal fees, these are common in the blockchain space and necessary for sustainability. Additionally, active measures against fraud, positive media recognition, and consistent user growth reinforce Cheelee's potential for long-term success in the social media market. Unfortunately, I'm not paid to promote it, but I still recommend the project to those who like such mechanics and are not scared of words like SocialFi.