I believe this is part of the cultural difference once again. China and India are similar where it only takes some to move in one direction to have others follow and create a network effect... not so in western markets which is where everyone who has been cheering for the refer program are located. From where @bitcrab is sitting, he really doesn't see any usefulness for it at all because in his market it isn't necessary. Everything he said is right in regards to business as far as China is concerned.
Thing which are specific to local markets should not be implemented at protocol level. Protocol should allow to create referral programs , pay dividends etc, but let local businesses which are oriented to specific markets to implement such things.
not totally culture difference.
in China there are also referral programs in App, one example is DiDi, an App similar to Uber and which has purchased Uber China. at the early stage of DiDi. when you finish one order, the App will generate one short message for you to share with your friends in social network, you can get some discount in your next order if you just shared the message. it works well.
we do not like the current BTS referrer program as:
1.the referrer get revenue directly from the fee paid by referee. referee will think "you promote this to me just because you want to make money from my transaction", this in many scene discourage the referee to join.
2.there's no difference for a referee to sign up using or not using referrer.
so if I need to design a referrer program for China commnuity, at least I'll do change like this:
1. when the referee sign up, he will get 20 BTS from referrer automatically as startup fee.
anyway, there's complex factors for implementing referrer programs succesfully, including but not limit to culture difference. I agree not to implement referrer program at protocol level.