It's Android in India, says mobile developer Paisa Swipe

Anyone with a mobile phone tends to check it several times a day. What if you could also earn money simply by unlocking your phone? This is the premise for Paisa* Swipe, a mobile advertisement and content discovery startup founded by mobile and social entrepreneurs: New York-based Jian Tam, Hyderabad-based Revanth Mittapalli, and San Francisco-based Chris Marshall.

Screen capture of the Paisa Swipe app page on the Android Play Store

"Jian and (I) had been talking about the explosion in mobile Internet, and how new mobile audiences needed new ways of finding great content, ideas, and engaging with brands. Jian started chatting with Revanth, and brought us all together to build a mobile content discovery product and Paisa Swipe was born," said Paisa Swipe Co-Founder Marshall.

When it came to a choice of mobile phone platform, Marshall said Android was their only choice. "We are 100% focused on Android right now. It is the fastest growing operating system (OS) in India, and we believe it will stay that way," he said.  


The Paisa Swipe app is available at the Android Play Store. Targeted at all of India, it displays advertising when a phone owner unlocks his or her screen, accumulating 'Paisa points' that can be spent like frequent flier miles. The user can also choose to make a purchase if the advertiser offers this, potentially earning more points in the process. 

Consider how many times a lock screen is unlocked, and the benefits for both advertisers and users become very clear. At the time of writing, the app had 1,068 Google+ recommendations and 4,788 ratings, with an average rating of four stars out of a maximum of five. Marshall disclosed that the beta app has 80,000 active accounts to date, and this number is growing at over 2.5% per day.

"The lock screen is the highest value, underutilised piece of real estate on the phone, a device that is with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Imagine being able to be the first thing a person sees when he looks  at his phone in the morning!" Marshall explained. 

"We have a ton of content being launched as we speak, from the movie and entertainment space, e-retail, bricks-and-mortar retail, and soon-to-be hyper-local offers as well. We are contacted daily by brands and agencies now that we are growing so fast."

According to Paisa Swipe's calculations, a Paisa Swipe member could potentially earn 3,600 rupees a year, about US$57. "This number is based on the average amount of phone unlocks and what retailers are telling us they will be willing to offer in Paisa points," Marshall said.  

"Primarily men use us, and we skew to the 15-30 age group overwhelmingly – basically technologically-savvy, social media-using people with discretionary income," he said. "The biggest challenge (for Paisa Swipe was) making the back-end intelligence. Our platform gets to know members' interests over time and tailors content delivery and offers to what members like."

Could this story be too good to be true? Marshall notes the money is a bonus as users earn money for doing something they would have done anyway. "This is a natural action you take, you bring your phone out of sleep mode and right on the screen is a piece of content or an advertisement, you can interact with it or not – either way you earn Paisa," he said.
 
*100 paisas make up one Indian rupee.