Ask mAsk: Questions and Answers from people to people

In contrast to social networks, forums and search engines, the app mAskfinds people who are appropriate, immediately and worldwide to answer to questions submitted by other people who are using the app. The app also allows for 1:1 conversations among the users. Last month Pocket Solutions, the company behind the app,  relaunched Ask mAsk. The app is currently available for IOS devices.

14 million different masks to allow for anonymity
The mAsk app is designed for two audiences: the private and the commercial users. After downloading the App, private users define their experience and the knowledge they are willing to share with the community through keywords. These keywords form unique mask, which offers the private user a chance of anonymity. There are over 14 million different masks in the app. The private user can at any time supplement, delete or adapt his or her keywords, depending on the questions they are interested in. The defined keywords for the questions can be used by the private user to control the type of questions they have on their smartphone and which ones they do not. Every seeker is also a respondent at the same time.

Each generated mask is unique, just like the human knowledge that everyone carries with it. The mask does not allow conclusions to be made to the user. After leaving the conversation, there are no digital traces left behind. “This is what distinguishes our app in particular”, says Jonas Schwarz, cofounder of mAsk.

1:1 conversations with verified users
Submitted answers are immediately verified. These can always consist of messages from private users and commercial users. A comparison is immediately possible. Moreover, in a question are often follow up questions, which in other concepts are connected with a new search. Thanks to the app’s ability to allow for 1:1 conversations, the respondent can deliver more accurate information on demand. This results in a conversation from person to person, to countless topics, directly and as desired in an anonymous framework.

According to Jonas Schwarz, the co-founder of mAsk, the commonest questions are about specific places, gastronomy, holidays, health, sports, children, cooking and eating and services of all kind “In over 16,000 messages, 1400 questions and over 2200 skills, it is clear that questions about services and recommendations come before the "know-how" transfer”, said Schwarz. “We believe that humans want answers from people and not machines which, for reasons of cost or marketing, imitate human behaviour and make us feel better”, he adds.

With their own founding capital, the team established Pocket Solutions AG and developed the iOS app. As an additional investment, the design agency Schaffner & Conzelmann was won. The agency supports the team with design, storytelling and the planning and implementation of the B2C campaign. Currently, the startup is soliciting funds for the first financing phase to facilitate the integration of the business model by the end of 2017, to implement the Android app and to expand the team.