| Founded | September 1, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Scott A. Jones and Brad Bostic |
| Headquarters | Carmel, Indiana, United States |
| Area served | United States, United Kingdom |
| Industry | Internet |
| Services | Web search, mobile search |
| Employees | 71[1] |
| Website | ChaCha.com (USA) UK.ChaCha.com (UK) |
ChaCha is a search engine that specializes in answering questions through a technique known as the human search engine. ChaCha was created by Scott A. Jones and Brad Bostic. The company is based in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, United States.
The name ChaCha comes from the Mandarin Chinese word, cha (simplified Chinese: 查; traditional Chinese: wikt:查; pinyin: chá; Wade–Giles: ch'a), which means "to search." [2]
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The alpha version of ChaCha was launched on September 1, 2006. A beta version was introduced on November 6, 2006.[3] ChaCha said 20,000 guides had registered by year's end and that it had raised US$6 million in development funds, including support from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment firm owned by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur behind Amazon.com.[4] By January 2008 AP reported that ChaCha had 5,000 freelance guides with no less than 500 working at any one time.[5] Washington Post partner mogonews.com reported that ChaCha's first round of equity financing was actually US$14 million plus a US$2 million grant from 21st Century Technology Fund.[6] ChaCha announced on March 17, 2009[7] a new round of equity financing totaling US$12 million[8] while also laying off 25 employees and reducing the 56 remaining salaries by 10 percent.[9]
In July 2010, ChaCha Inc. was recognized as one of the “2010 Hottest Companies in the Midwest” by Lead411.[10]
In August 2011, ChaCha launched its text messaging-based service in the United Kingdom[11] available via short code 85852.
ChaCha has experienced significant growth since it was launched in September 2006. The site is currently verified to have broken the 17 million-unique-visitors mark according to Quantcast, making it approximately the 68th largest site in the United States. As of August 2011, ChaCha had answered over 1.7 billion questions.[12]
ChaCha had originally been founded with the intention to offer human-guided search from within a web browser and for the search engine to learn from the results provided by their independent contractors.[13] The system offered a chat on the left side of the page where users could chat with the guides and conclude their search.[13] The center of the page contained results that a guide could add or remove (later users could also add or remove these results). The right side of the page contained ads that were relevant to the search.[14]
Desktop search was phased out in April 2008 in favor of mobile products.[15]
Users send an SMS message with their question to 242-242, where Guides will then answer it. Standard messaging fees may apply, but ChaCha will not charge additional fees. The company answers over 2 million text message questions daily.[16]
ChaCha launched its beta version of a call-in search service on April 1, 2008, while discontinuing its less effective guided web search.[15] Users call a toll-free number (800-2ChaCha) to have a human answer their questions via SMS messaging.
In July 2008, ChaCha launched its first mobile marketing campaign with Coca-Cola to promote its My Coke Rewards program to users interested in NASCAR racing.[17] Fox News reported that ChaCha planned by mid 2008 to charge users $5–$10 per month once they exceeded 10 queries.[18] However, currently, no additional fees have been implemented, nor have any plans been officially announced by any reliable source.[19]
In November, 2008, ChaCha launched its SMS Advertising Platform at ad:tech New York.[20][21]
In March 2009, ChaCha reported 30 million "impressions per month" and "3.6 million users" since January 2008.[22][23] An ESPN article stated that ChaCha gets about 1,000,000 questions each day according to their tipsheets.[24] A former Yahoo executive opened an New York office for ChaCha in hopes of increasing advertising.[25]
ChaCha uses independent contractors called Guides.[26] There are four main types of guides: Generalist/Specialist, Expeditor, Transcriber, and Vetter.[27] Expeditors categorize questions, convert them into standard form, provide direct responses for certain question types, and also make sure that an answer doesn't already exist for that question.[28] The purposes of a Generalist, "the original and basic ChaCha Guide role," are to: determine what the customer's question is, find an answer to the question using the Internet, format the answer into a text message, and add "magic" to the answer which gives it a human quality.[29] Specialists are a more selective group of guides. They have all of the same purposes as a Generalist but they sign up for specific categories of questions based on their interest in and knowledge of those categories.[30] The duty of Transcribers is to listen to questions recorded by customers who call into 1-800-2ChaCha and then convert the recorded message into text form so that Generalists and Specialists can answer them.[31]
Guides are paid on a per-query basis. Generalists and Specialists can expect to make between $0.10 and $0.20 for each question answered, while Expediters and Transcribers earn $0.02 per question. Vetters earn $0.01 for each question fielded. As of late 2011 the company reported it engaged about 180,000 guides.[16]
The Wall Street Journal’s personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, characterized ChaCha as having "fast, accurate, useful answers" in his April 24, 2008 column If You Have ChaCha and a Cellphone, You Have Answers.[32]
In April 2009, ESPN's Rick Reilly spent some time working for ChaCha for an article on ESPN The Magazine. Reilly says:
ChaCha, as most people under 103 know, is the highly addictive mobile answer service that responds to any query you send (text "ChaCha" or "242242") with a real answer from a real person, usually within three minutes, for free. Is this a great world or what?[24]
