The hit smartphone game "Pokemon Go" hasn’t been released in Ukraine yet, but people here are already catching the critters.
The game can be installed on smartphones in Ukraine using loopholes in the system settings.
And a Ukrainian online tutoring platform Preply already offers gamers the option of hiring “Pokémon Go” coaches or, according to Pokemon slang — trainers, who are characters in the well known Pokemon cartoons that catch, train, care for and battle with the monsters.
Currently, there are seven available trainers, who offer their services for from $10 to $25 per hour. Each can be contacted via Skype.
One of the trainers, nicknamed Ashley S., lives in New York and, for $20 per hour, offers to log into a player’s account and catch virtual creatures in the “most Poke-stops possible within an hour.”
“Let’s catch the Pokemon you are unable to, and level-up faster than ever before,” Ashley S. writes in her Preply account. “Whether you are stuck at school, don’t have the time or have already caught all of your local Pokemon, let’s diversify your collection and help you to reach that next level.”
The Preply’s service connects customer and tutors similarly how the social networks do, where tutors have detailed profiles. © Preply
The startup connects some 25,000 tutors with 70,000 students and offers to link up students with teachers of 27 languages, 13 school subjects, and acting, painting and music lessons
“‘Pokemon Go” is growing amazingly fast and creates a little industry around itself wherever it goes,” Preply co-founder and CEO Kirill Bigai told the Kyiv Post. “We couldn’t ignore this ‘pokemania’ and decided to offer a marketplace for Pokemon trainers as soon as the new skills and experience were in demand from players.”
“And by the way, what’s wrong with having some fun?” Bigai said.
“Pokemon Go” is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game, created by Japanese firms The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. It was developed by U.S. Niantic, Inc. for iOS and Android devices.
Using GPS and the camera of any compatible device, the game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokemon, who appear on the screens as though in the real world.
The game was launched on July 6 in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and is currently available in more than 20 countries, mostly in Europe and North America.
Pokemon Go rapidly topped the American iOS App Store’s “Top Grossing” and “Free” charts.
The game has become the fastest game to top the App Store and Google Play, beating “Clash Royale.”
Within two days of its release, it was installed on more than 5 percent of Android devices in the United States, according to SimilarWeb. On July 12, six days after release, the game became the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21 million active users.
The trend continued for more than a week after the game’s release, and by July 19, the stock value of Nintendo more than doubled compared to before the game’s release.
The game has been credited with popularizing augmented reality, and has been praised by some medical professionals for potentially improving the mental and physical health of players. However, it has also attracted some controversy due to reports of it causing accidents and being a public nuisance at some locations.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached
at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum, Steltec Capital, 1World Online
and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
