Google has launched TaskMate, a crowdsourcing app that allows people to use smartphones to perform tasks and get paid, in Kenya after a year-long pilot in the East African country.
TaskMate offers people local job opportunities such as taking a photo of a nearby restaurant, answering survey questions, or helping translate sentences from English to your local language.
Google’s own description of the app is: ‘Get paid for the tasks that you complete accurately and withdraw your earnings in your local currency from the TaskMate app. Register your e-wallet or bank account with Task Mate’s payment partner to cash out.’
The pilot started in Kenya late last year, and users were able to carry out different tasks, including taking photos of plants for a research project carried out by Penn State University. The app’s gigs are defined as either sitting or field tasks.
“Today, we have launched TaskMate, and it’s the first time we have opened it in Africa and across the world,” said TaskMate product manager Mike Knapp.
“We went to a pilot phase where we had 1000 people use the app, and they gave very positive feedback. And so now we’ve moved to the beta phase. And we’re really experimenting at a bigger level at this point,” said Knapp.
“And we’re looking for businesses and startups to come and experiment with us on the platform, to see how this can help them solve the difficult problems that they’re working on,” he said.
The tech giant is preparing to introduce it to other countries across the continent.
