Touted as a ‘revolutionary’ smart phone app, TaskSpotting lets users earn money by reviewing shops and services.
Walid Sherif, Karim Aly, Nadia Mankani and Dirk Stevens explaining the different features of smart phone application TaskSpotting in Dubai. — KT photo by Rahul Gajjar
Mall strollers have reason to rejoice. There is a new app that can earn you money, by simply walking around shopping malls, cafes, or even a car showroom.This is TaskSpotting and it has been slated to be a “revolutionary new mobile phone app” that pays people to give them feedback.
The homegrown mobile application leverages the crowd-sourcing concept that allows business to gather information from their most valued stakeholders: ‘The consumer’, that is, if they are willing to join the crowd.
What’s more, the app user or ‘spotter’ gets paid for their participation.
TaskSpotting is a network of app users (spotters) who can accept and complete missions in places like malls, retailers and restaurants in exchange for cash. These missions, which could range from service and quality audits (mystery shopping) to retail audits, take a few minutes and spotters can earn anywhere from Dh30 to Dh100. Spotters can receive payments via PayPal, redeem them in cash at over 200 payment points in the UAE or donate them to a local charity.
The brainchild of its CEO Karim Aly, TaskSpotting is the first solution of its kind in the Middle East and while definitely still in its early stages, it is growing at an explosive pace. Aly, along with Dirk Stevens, head of business development; Walid Sherif, head of operations; and Nadia Mankani, head of marketing, run the show at TaskSpotting.
The Dubai-based startup that operates out of startup incubator In5 in Knowledge Village, went live on June 4 this year. A group of former colleagues and MBA classmates-turned-business-associates, the team behind the app said it basically started off as an effort to address the challenge of “getting on-demand and accurate data with ease”.
Aly told Khaleej Times: “Our idea was to develop an effective way for businesses to get real-time visibility and market insights. We saw a great opportunity in this, given that businesses in today’s highly competitive environment need to make informed decisions faster than ever before.
“The region presents even greater challenges considering the shortage of publicly available data and cultural sensitivities.”
By combining crowdsourcing with mobile technology, TaskSpotting has eliminated many of the challenges associated with traditional market research by allowing businesses to capture information from precise locations in real-time by leveraging smart phones users.
“We’ve enabled a completely new perspective for businesses; imagine being able to reach out to thousands of consumers, ask them for the information you need from the field or for shopper insights from them even while they are at home and receive it back accurately and in real-time — all at the touch of a button!” said Aly.
Missions
TaskSpotting, available for both the Android and iOS platforms, has push notifications which alerts app users of ‘nearby missions’.
“The app is applicable to different industries. Our clients include retailers, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and food and beverage outlets. For example, with one of our FMCG clients, we helped them audit and monitor their retail execution across the nation. The spotter is asked to go on location and answer some basic questions such as which shelf the products are placed on, if the correct marketing material is present, what the listed price is, etc,” said Dirk Stevens. With 78 per cent smart phone penetration — the UAE easily has the highest smartphone penetration rate in the world, and it is also perhaps one of the world’s best known shopping destinations — the app has become very popular with users in the UAE.
Stevens said: “The personal data of the spotters is kept private and the app does not assign tasks to them as well. The user has complete control over which tasks (he wishes to undertake); it is just a matter of incorporating tasks in daily life for the user.”
Sherif said completing tasks on the app provides the user with three modes of payments. “They can get their rewards credited into their PayPal account; they can donate the cash rewards earned to charity; or redeem the points for hard cash from UAE Exchange. From what we see, there is nothing better than hard, cold cash. It is something of the main drive that motivates people,” he said. Stevens added that points are more or less something of a game behind the app. “It works as an incentive to unlock privileges on the app,” he said.
Aly said: “Even though we are very much a baby organisation, the growth has been steep. We have garnered about 10,000 spotters and we have about 50,000 data points in clients and have given away an excess of Dh20,000 to app users. If the app user refers a friend to the app, Dh5 is credited to his or her wallet.”
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