Any Question Answered
Any Question Answered (AQA) is a premium-rate SMS information and entertainment service based in the UK, run by Issuebits Ltd, a company founded in 2002 by former Symbian CEO Colly Myers. Mobile phone users can text AQA with any question and get a reply, for a charge of £1 per SMS sent to the service. The service operates through a network of home-based researchers who log into AQA's system, using the database of existing answers and their own sources, which can include Internet search engines, to come up with answers.
Since its launch, AQA has answered over 9 million questions and answers over 16,000 questions a day. Issuebits currently employs over 1,000 researchers, including over 40 based in Australia, who were recruited to help answer the high volume of questions the service receives between the hours of midnight and 6 am.
AQA is available for UK mobile phone users on shortcode 63336 for £1, and in Ireland using the number 57275 for €2.
AQA was the first to market its services through a premium shortcode number, launching the service in April 2004. A number of similar premium shortcode services are also available, such as Texperts, AskMeNow in the US, and KVEST 7407 in Ukraine.
AQA was named best mobile service at the Mobile Choice Consumer awards held on 30th September 2004, and is currently ranked the number 2 shortcode service in the UK by Hutchison 3G Telecommunications.
Bibliography
- The End of the Question Mark (2006) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-869-3
- Any Question Answered (2007) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-84668-082-4