A recent Walrus magazine article reports that ghostwriting is a profitable business, such as My Essay Writer website. The website is reportedly has a “a team of twenty full-time writers who crank out dozens of essays for clients per week, including post-secondary and high school students from around the world”.

The article points out that college ghostwriters business like the My Essay Writer websites are facing stiff competition since the lunch of the ChatGPT. “For decades, custom essay-writing services have gone largely unchallenged—but could ChatGPT and tougher anti-cheating measures finally put them in peril?”

Statistics on the scope of the contract-cheating industry in Canada are sparse, but the global market for custom essay-writing companies is estimated to be worth up to $21 billion (US).

A more recent study, from January 2020, estimates that over 70,000 post-secondary students in Canada were likely taking part in contract cheating at least once per year. That represents about 3.5 percent of the country’s post-secondary students.

– The Walrus

According to the Walrus, the custom essay writing industry is traced back to 1930s, where students pay a steep prices for such services. “Some students have also been blackmailed by the contract-cheating companies after they tried to cancel their payments.”

According to Sarah Elaine Eaton, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education, Canada has been a worst country compared to its counterparts in the Western world with regards to the contract-writing.

One of the reasons the students are drawn to such services is that students struggling with the pressure to perform, coupled with poor time-management and organizational skills, often turn to these services: “When students get into a time crunch and get into a corner, they rationalize they can do anything that they can to maintain their work or hand it in even if they have to engage in misconduct to achieve it.”

Bruce Ross, the owner of My Essay Writer websites told Walrus that there different types of students are drawn to his services. “What they share in common is simply the fact that they are stressed. [Schools] are telling students they can take a program, graduate, and get a job. And what they really end up with is $50,000 in debt and no job. Cheating is often a last resort to simply get by.”