HQ Trivia has been taking the app world by storm. Now with an Android app, it's reaching more viewers than ever before. What makes this app so great? How are they giving us this money and content with nothing in return? These are a few of your HQuestions answered.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, this first one is for you:
1. What is HQ?
HQ Trivia is essentially a game show that everyone watching can play for cash prizes. The host asks a series of questions, usually 12, and gives the player just 10 seconds to answer. That's definitely not enough time to Google the answer unless maybe you have NASA's wifi speed and type 80 words per minute. But, you can gain extra lives by inviting friends to download the app.
If you make it through every round, you get to split the prize money with the winners. So, the prize isn't always huge; it's often just a little bit over $10. However, they have bigger giveaways sporadically. Just over a week ago, the prize was upped from 15 to 50 thousand USD. The winners received over $8,000.
2. How does HQ make any money?
Playing a game or watching TV without ads is virtually non-existent these days. Ad funding creates revenue for so many apps; so how does HQ literally give money away without bringing in those ad dollars or selling a product?
Right now, the founders claim they are not focused on profitability. According to Time Money, they are currently backed by venture capital (private equity for small, up-and-coming businesses.) Their end-goal is to have big businesses want to collaborate because of the scale and reputation of HQ Trivia. And, they are well on their way with close to two million people tuning in for the larger sums. Needless to say, this investment is risky – but the payoff could be great.
3. Who created it?
This really got me. Remember a little app known as Vine...? RIP. Well, two of the guys who helped create Vine created HQ Trivia too! Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll launched the app this past fall season.
Although HQ has been wildly successful so far, it seems they are in hot water now with allegations of co-founder Colin Kroll's "creepy" behavior toward female coworkers while he worked at Twitter. While they want their booming company to be valued at $100 million, many investors don't want to be tied to sexual harassment in any way.
4. Who is Scott Rogowsky?
According to Rogowsky's interview with AdWeek, he got his start doing comedy in NYC. His time eventually became devoted to his show called "Running Late with Scott Rogowsky." Right before he was about to make a move from New York to L.A. for this show, which he still hosts in addition to HQ, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll contacted Rogowsky to be the game show app's primary host.
