For decades, Guinness World Records stood as an emblem of human ambition, a global repository of excellence where extraordinary feats were honored, celebrated, and immortalized. But in 2025, one brave voice—Udoh Ebaide—cut through the myth. With fearless clarity, she exposed what millions suspected yet few dared articulate: Guinness World Records has become a commercialized, pay-to-play empire, masking profit motives behind the façade of human achievement.
The Illusion of Merit: Broken by Truth
Founded in 1955 to settle a pub argument over the fastest game bird, Guinness World Records grew into an international sensation (Pasley, 2023). Originally, it was a whimsical celebration of human limits—longest marathon dances, tallest towers of playing cards, largest gatherings of people dressed as Smurfs. Yet the organization’s recent evolution reveals a darker truth.
Today’s record-seekers face complex application processes, including a priority review costing $650 and live adjudication fees reaching $10,000 (Guinness World Records, 2025a; Guinness World Records, 2025b). While Guinness claims these fees cover administrative costs (Guinness World Records, 2025c), they also generate revenue from people’s ambitions.
Udoh Ebaide’s intervention is monumental: she refuses to let the world continue believing that only excellence matters, when in reality, wealth, marketing, and access define the odds.
A Courageous Whistleblower
In a climate where whistleblowers are often demonized, Udoh Ebaide’s critique is an act of moral courage. Her message resonates globally because she has laid bare a hidden tax on human potential: a silent exclusion of millions who cannot afford Guinness’s “consultancy services” or “priority processing” (Guinness World Records, 2025d).
Imagine the children in Lagos, Mumbai, or Recife perfecting their talents for years—only to discover that beating the odds wasn’t enough. They also needed a corporate budget. This is not inspiration. It is institutionalized elitism.
The Business Model No One Talks About
As revealed by Bista and Arcuri (2020), Guinness World Records has long shifted from a neutral observer of greatness to an active participant in a billion-dollar entertainment economy. Revenue now flows not only from books and licensing deals but increasingly from corporate-sponsored record attempts, consulting, and branded spectacles.
Computer Weekly (2022) documents Guinness’s aggressive push into digital media—turning once-authentic records into viral TikTok fodder, monetized YouTube clips, and branded “official attempts.” Meanwhile, The Financial Times (2024) reports that Guinness is even opening entertainment venues, solidifying its transformation into a full-blown commercial enterprise.
This is no longer the Guinness of quaint records and innocent ambition. It is a pay-to-play empire, built on the backs of dreamers it quietly sidelines.
The Price of Validation
Contrary to popular belief, setting a Guinness record often costs more than it rewards. As GoBankingRates (Lisa, 2023) explains, successful record holders rarely receive prize money—and many spend thousands just to have their attempt recognized. Applications languish for 12–16 weeks unless “priority processing” is paid for (USA Today, 2023).
Those without money for fast-tracking face a de facto exclusion. Their dreams are deferred indefinitely, reinforcing a class divide hidden under the glitter of certificates.
Udoh Ebaide is right: this isn’t meritocracy. It’s monetized hope.
A Platform for Power, Not Principles
Guinness’s commercial entanglements also raise ethical questions. Reprieve (Smith, 2024) revealed that Guinness has been used by authoritarian regimes for image-laundering, allowing states with dismal human rights records to host Guinness-certified PR events.
The Sunday Times (Malvern and Willoughby, 2024) corroborated this, detailing how Guinness helped whitewash repressive governments’ reputations under the guise of record-breaking spectacles.
Thus, the institution that claims to champion human achievement has become an accessory to global soft-power manipulation. Excellence is secondary to publicity. Authenticity is a footnote to profitability.
Behind the Paywall: The Reality for Ordinary People
What happens to the thousands of individuals for whom Guinness once stood as a beacon?
They are priced out, marginalized, and forgotten.
While Guinness World Records announces partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech giants (Rikap and Lundvall, 2021), ordinary citizens struggle to afford even the basic fees for submission, let alone navigate the legal minefield of branded partnerships and broadcast rights.
Guinness’s business decisions, according to Reuters (2025), are now increasingly dictated by brand expansion opportunities, with Diageo even exploring spinning off or selling Guinness-related assets.
The soul of Guinness has been auctioned off. And it was bought by the highest bidders.
Read also: Onakoya Sets New Guinness WR With 58-Hour Chess Marathon
Udoh Ebaide’s Legacy: Beyond Outrage
What Udoh Ebaide has accomplished goes beyond mere critique. She has ignited a necessary, global conversation about what genuine recognition should mean. Her courageous stand reminds us that:
- True greatness demands accessibility, not privilege.
- Recognition must be earned, not purchased.
- Institutions must be held accountable, no matter how venerable they seem.
The Bookseller (2024) may tout Guinness’s booming book sales—jumping more than a quarter recently—but that commercial success rings hollow if it rests on excluding those without wealth.
Toward a New Kind of Record-Keeping
In the wake of Udoh Ebaide’s stand, the need is clear: we must create and champion new, truly democratic platforms for recognition.
Imagine an open-source world record database. Imagine peer-reviewed achievements verified transparently and free from financial barriers. Imagine a new Guinness—one true to its founding spirit, yet adapted for a globalized, egalitarian future.
That vision begins not with institutions, but with individuals who refuse to be complicit in injustice. Individuals like Udoh Ebaide.
Conclusion: A Reckoning That Cannot Be Ignored
Guinness World Records today is a glittering façade over a cynical business model (NPR, 2020). It celebrates corporate partnerships over personal perseverance. It rewards viral sensationalism over enduring excellence. It protects profits over principles.
Thanks to Udoh Ebaide, that reality is no longer hidden.
History may not remember every viral record certified by Guinness in the digital age. But it will remember this: a woman dared to speak the truth, and in doing so, preserved the true spirit of human achievement.
If Guinness World Records once symbolized dreams made tangible, today it symbolizes something else: that dreams, too, can be monetized, manipulated, and marginalized.
Unless we demand better.
Unless we, like Udoh Ebaide, refuse to be silent.
References
Bista, T. and Arcuri, B. (2020) ‘The Surprising Business Model Behind Guinness World Records’, Planet Money (NPR), 18 September. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2020/09/18/914026616/the-surprising-business-model-behind-guinness-world-records (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Business Insider (Pasley, J.) (2023) ‘Here’s how the Guinness World Records went from a way to settle pub arguments to a worldwide phenomenon’, Business Insider, 23 June. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/guinness-world-records-history-pub-arguments-expansion-2023-6 (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Computer Weekly (2022) ‘Guinness World Records goes digital’, Computer Weekly, 23 February. Available at: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252517640/Guinness-World-Records-goes-digital (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Financial Times (2024) ‘Guinness World Records to open London entertainment venue’, Financial Times, 1 October. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/guinness-world-records-entertainment-venue-london-2024 (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
GoBankingRates (Lisa, A.) (2023) ‘Setting a Guinness World Record Won’t Make You Rich and May Even Cost You Money’, GoBankingRates, 31 May. Available at: https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/record-failures-costly-guinness/ (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Guinness World Records (2025a) ‘Priority Application Service and Priority Evidence Review’, Guinness World Records. Available at: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/the-application-process/priority-application-priority-review (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Guinness World Records (2025b) ‘Consultancy Services’, Guinness World Records. Available at: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/the-application-process/consultancy (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Guinness World Records (2025c) ‘Standard applications’, Guinness World Records. Available at: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/the-application-process/standard-applications (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Malvern, J. and Willoughby, G. (2024) ‘Guinness World Records Accused of Whitewashing Repressive Regimes’ Images’, The Sunday Times, 24 March. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/guinness-world-records-accused-of-whitewashing-repressive-regimes-images-9bmrg9p6c (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
NPR (2020) ‘Planet Money Shorts: The Surprising Business Model Behind Guinness World Records’, Planet Money, 18 September. Available at: https://www.npr.org/series/774778008/planet-money-shorts-season-3 (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Reprieve (Smith, A.) (2024) ‘Saudi buys Guinness World Records to launder rights reputation’, Reprieve, 23 February. Available at: https://reprieve.org/uk/saudi-buys-guinness-world-records-to-launder-rights-reputation/ (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Reuters (2025) ‘Diageo exploring potential spin-off or sale of Guinness’, Reuters, 24 January. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/business/diageo-exploring-potential-spin-off-or-sale-guinness-2025-01-24/ (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
The Bookseller (2024) ‘Guinness World Records tops the chart as market sales jump more than a quarter’, The Bookseller, 12 April. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/guinness-world-records-tops-chart-sales-jump-quarter-2024 (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
USA Today (2023) ‘How to apply for a Guinness World Record’, USA Today, 8 November. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/08/how-to-apply-for-guinness-world-record/71501332007/ (Accessed: 26 April 2025).
Rikap, C. and Lundvall, B. (2021) ‘Amazon and Microsoft: Convergence and the Emerging AI Technology Trajectory’, in The Digital Innovation Race. Springer. Available at: https://consensus.app/papers/amazon-and-microsoft-convergence-and-the-emerging-ai-rikap-lundvall/0beedc85779d5ec3b5b368f3d56a622f (Accessed: 26 April 2025).