Teenager's Summly News App Dominates App Store Charts


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App has garnered over $1 million in funding.

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A smartphone app that provides summaries of news stories entered the top 10 chart in Apple's app store just two hours after its release in the United States.

Entitled Summly, the app was by designed by London-based 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio. The application has received more than $1 million in funding from several investors, with notable supporters including Newscorp owner Rupert Murdoch, Stephen Fry and Tech City CEO Joanna Shields.

The free app utilizes algorithms to process news stories into summaries, with users being able to see the story in full by a swipe. D'Aloisio took time off his school in order to develop his idea.

"We worked hard on an interface that looks like nothing else on iPhone," he told the BBC. "We merged algorithm with beautiful design. It's summarising thousands of articles every minute. I see big visions for the company longer term. We can really become the de-facto format for news on mobile. People are not scrolling through 1,000-word articles - they want snack-sized information."

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D'Aloisio appointed Bart Swanson, who managed the roll-out of the world's largest online retailer Amazon into Europe, to chair the firm behind Summly.

Looking towards the future, D'Aloisio wishes to see users making micro-payments in order read some stories in full if they choose to view the whole story. "Traditionally publishers have been confined to a paywall system," he explained. "You can either give away the headline or the full article. But we can really sell the summary level."

He stressed his plans to finish college and proceed to university, but also wants to remain involved in the company. "I'm going to do my best to stay, I'm the founder and it's my vision and I want to see that through."

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Summly-News-App-Apple-Store,news-16259.html

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