“Who Becomes Rich” make Tobias Sell “app” famous

Tobias Sell, right, visits with Stu Hansen.

Tobias Sell always wanted to be on the creative side of computing rather than the functional side. "I wanted to write software. So, I started studying," Sell said.

"Studying" brought him to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Sell and his friends Hendrik Gülz and Jonathan Bergen spent fall semester of 2010 in Kenosha working with Stu Hansen and other Computer Science faculty as exchange students from the Wolfenbüttel campus of Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.

Staying in the Global Village in the Pike River Suites, Sell enjoyed what he called a "great and awesome experience" at UW-Parkside. He has returned several times to visit with friends and, occasionally, to solicit their help.

Applying his knowledge

Returning to Germany, Sell and Gülz applied their computer knowledge to the growing application, or "app," market.

 "I really wanted to do something with phones," Sell recalled. "I got my new Android phone and I wanted to try it out, see what we can do with it. So, we wrote a trivia app. Android was in its early stage and there was no real trivia game in German available at that time. We were the first one and we just got very successful."

The app, "Who Becomes Rich?" was an instant hit among Android users.

 "We were a top 10 app in Germany," Sell said and even now, long after its introduction, the game is still one of the top 50 apps in Germany with 5.5 million downloads worldwide.

"Android Central" game reviewer Sean Brunett compared "Who Becomes Rich" with the TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," calling the app "very addicting." The questions, ranging from sports and movies, to politics, and others, have a monetary "value." They start out easy, but gradually get more difficult as the value increases.

Lost in Translation

At first, the app was slower to catch on in the United States due to knowledge and cultural differences.

"When we first translated it on our own, we found a lot of things and knowledge that are different. People know all of the capitals of the States here while we know all the capitals of European countries; cats have seven lives over there, here they have nine lives. There were lots of small things that were different," Sell said.

With assistance from his UW-Parkside friends, Sell and Gulz fine-tuned the English version of "Who Becomes Rich?" and it received the Best Apps Award from the web site Best Apps Market in 2012.

Sell said the app continues to gain momentum in the U.S.?"We are slowly growing here," he said, and he thanked his friends at UW-Parkside for their help.

"Who Becomes Rich?" is available for Android and iPhone.

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ABOUT THIS STORY:

Story Status: Archived
Publish date: 2/28/2013

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