The Sponsored lane
On a Vector Network search, and on a buyer’s matches in Vector Exchange, sponsors appear in their own section headed Sponsored, above the organic results. Each one carries the Sponsored label.
Paid placement and sponsorship.
A provider can pay to be seen: in a labelled lane above the organic results, and in labelled sponsor panels. No one can pay to change the organic results themselves. This page says exactly what a sponsor buys, what it cannot buy, and what changed on 21 Oct 2026. Read it with neutrality and conflicts, which covers our own relationship with ACV Solutions, and how GCC Pulse is made.
A labelled place above the organic results, and labelled panels.
Sponsor panels
Labelled sponsor panels can appear on the Vector Network, GCC Pulse and Explore GCC India pages. A panel sits outside every ranked list and feed, and is not drawn at all when nobody is sponsoring.
What a reader is told
Every sponsored item shows the sponsor’s own stated reason, the date its term ends, and a “Why am I seeing this” explanation. A firm’s profile page carries the Sponsored label only while it holds a live Vector Network lane term; a firm that sponsors only a panel or the Exchange lane is labelled where that panel or lane appears, not on its profile.
A platform administrator sets each term: which placements, the reason readers see, and a start and end date. Setting and ending a term are both audited. The price is agreed privately between the provider and us, and no amount is stored on the term, so there is nothing for any code to sort by. Inside a lane, sponsors are ordered the way the organic results are: on Vector Network by the same ranking function against your search, and on Vector Exchange in their organic match order.
The organic results are the same whether or not anyone pays.
The organic list is ranked from every eligible listing exactly as if nobody sponsored anything: the same listings, in the same order, with the same scores. A sponsor in the lane therefore also appears in the organic list at the position its evidence earns, so you may see it twice: once labelled, above, and once unlabelled at its merit position.
This is structural rather than a policy we intend to keep. The ranking code for Vector Network, Vector Exchange matches, the GCC Pulse feed and the professionals directory has no field for sponsorship and no word for it. An automated check, scripts/check-neutrality.sh, runs on every build and fails it if any of those files mentions sponsorship. The ranking function returns its component scores, so our administrators can see exactly why any item ranked where it did.
Verification is not a purchase
A provider is verified on evidence: registration, references, demonstrated capability in the category they are listed under, read by an administrator with an expiry stamped on it. Paying does not shorten that, soften it, or substitute for it. Only a listing that is currently verified can appear in a lane or a panel.
The GCC Pulse feed is not for sale
The order and inclusion of the GCC Pulse feed are never for sale. There is no sponsored card, no promoted item and no paid tag in the feed. Publishers do not pay to be summarised and are not paid to be. A sponsor panel on the Pulse page sits outside the feed, never inside it.
Professionals cannot be sponsored
Professionals cannot be sponsored. A sponsorship term can only name a provider listing, and no placement exists in the professionals directory.
We also do not publish anonymous ratings, and we do not publish reviews that can be bought, traded or gamed — we do not publish reviews at all. What we intend to publish, once there is enough of it to be meaningful, is recorded outcome data: whether an introduction led to an engagement, whether a provider responded, how quickly. That is a fact about what happened, attached to a real transaction on the platform, not an opinion from an unverifiable account.
Buyers pay for our services; providers pay only for sponsorship.
Buyers pay GCC Vector for its own services: the Journey subscription, a fee per private connection with a vendor, and a programme set-up fee. The prices are on the pricing page. What a buyer pays a vendor is paid directly between them; GCC Vector records the deal and never holds that money.
Providers pay nothing to be listed, verified or matched. The only thing a provider can pay for is sponsorship, as described above. Events and research are possible later, with sponsors named on the item. ACV delivery services are live elsewhere: ACV’s own businesses may appear as providers, verified on the same evidence as anyone else, ranked by the same criteria, and labelled as ACV.
When a paid product is introduced, this page changes before it goes live, not after: what is being sold, what it affects, and what it cannot affect. If we change the rules above, the change is shown here and dated, and the old wording stays readable.
The commitment, stated plainly
No paid product will ever alter organic ranking, verification status, the order of GCC Pulse, or which providers a requirement reaches. If we ever want to do one of those things, we will have to say so here first — and you will be able to see that we did.
What this page used to say, and what replaced it.
On 21 Oct 2026 sponsorship went live (ADR-007). The commitments below were on this page before that date and are no longer true as written. Each is quoted exactly, followed by what is true now. Everything else this page promised before still holds.
Before: “Ranking is never for sale.”
Now: Organic ranking is never for sale. A sponsor can buy a labelled place in the Sponsored lane above the organic results; its organic position is unchanged.
Before: “Where something is paid for, it is labelled, it is separated from editorial, and it does not compete with editorial for position.”
Now: Where something is paid for, it is labelled and kept out of every ranked list and feed. A Sponsored lane does take the place above the organic results, so it no longer stays out of the way of editorial; it never changes the organic order.
Before: “No provider, publisher or partner can pay to rank higher, to appear in Vector Pulse, to be tagged to a topic, or to be surfaced against a requirement.”
Now: No one can pay to rank higher in the organic list, to appear in the GCC Pulse feed, to be tagged to a topic, or to be matched to a requirement it does not already match. A sponsor that already matches a requirement can pay to appear in the labelled lane above the matches as well.
Before: “What is not for sale, and will not become for sale: position in a ranked list, position in search results, position in the Pulse feed, inclusion in a shortlist or match, the outcome of a verification, and the removal of a correction.”
Now: A sponsor can now buy a place in a labelled Sponsored lane above the organic search results and above a buyer's matches. Position in the organic list, position in the Pulse feed, inclusion in a match, the outcome of a verification and the removal of a correction are still not for sale.
Before: “The sponsored lane is separate, labelled, and below.”
Now: The Sponsored lane is still separate and labelled. It now sits above the organic results.
Before: “A listing in the lane is removed from the organic list, not lifted within it.”
Now: A sponsor in the lane also stays in the organic list, at the position its evidence earns. Taking it out would have renumbered every listing ranked after it, so the organic list would not have been the same with and without payment.
Before: “Vector Pulse carries no paid items at all.”
Now: The GCC Pulse feed still carries no paid item, and its order and inclusion are never for sale. A labelled sponsor panel can now appear on the GCC Pulse page, outside the feed.
Before: “Sponsored content is not live.”
Now: Sponsorship is live: the Sponsored lanes on Vector Network and Vector Exchange, and sponsor panels on Vector Network, GCC Pulse and Explore GCC India.
Before: “Provider subscriptions are planned: a verified provider pays to maintain a listing and to receive qualified requirements.”
Now: There is no provider subscription. A provider pays nothing to be listed, verified or matched; the only thing a provider can pay for is sponsorship.
Before: “A sponsored listing is labelled wherever it appears, including inside a requirement’s match list.”
Now: A sponsor is labelled in the lane and in a panel. Its entry in the organic list carries no label, because nothing about that entry was paid for.
Before: “A provider who pays and fails verification is not listed, and a sponsored listing that is not verified is shown as not verified.”
Now: A listing that is not currently verified cannot appear in a lane or a panel at all, whatever has been paid.
What to look at if you think we have slipped.
Every provider card shows the reasons it ranked where it did. Compare a sponsor’s labelled entry with its organic entry: the organic one should sit exactly where its evidence puts it. Our own relationship with ACV Solutions is disclosed on every card it touches. If a result looks bought, the rationale on the card is where the argument starts — tell us, and quote it.
ACV Solutions builds this platform and also sells delivery services that compete with providers listed on it. The rules above exist because of that, not despite it. If you think we have broken one, the fastest way to find out is to tell us in public.