Commercial independence
Paid exposure does not buy organic rank.
CurioBeam does not currently use sponsorship to decide product facts, editorial badges, or organic Best Match ordering. If paid placements are introduced, they will be clearly labeled and kept separate from organic discovery.
Organic ranking
What money cannot change
Organic ranking does not use payment amount, sponsorship status, developer purchase history, founder follower count as a quality proxy, or whether AI assisted development.
Payment also cannot change normalized product facts, buy an editorial designation, or turn a developer assertion into verified evidence.
Future paid surfaces
Sponsored means labeled
Any future sponsored placement must use a clear Sponsored or Promoted label and occupy a distinct paid surface. It must not masquerade as Recommended, Editor's Pick, Hidden Gem, or another editorial designation, and it must not rewrite the organic position of that app or its competitors.
Equal evidence rules
Payment provides no truth privilege
A paying developer would be able to submit factual corrections under the same evidence rules as everyone else. Free submission does not buy ranking, and paid participation would not create a different standard for what CurioBeam considers true.