As the coronavirus becomes more widespread and deadly, South Africans are being encouraged to stay at home to weather the deadly COVID-19 storm.
However, besides the fear of catching the highly infectious COVID-19, there’s little incentive to remain caged at home.
A new chatbot, developed in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is hoping to change that by incentivising users who check their COVID-19 status.
Concorona, developed by Kyle Ueckermann, is a chatbot that incentivises users to track their symptoms through a daily check-up.
By completing the check-up, users earn points that they can redeem in partner
stores.
The chatbot also offers different reward-based quizzes about the coronavirus.
Users earn reward points called “Concora” and can collect their points on a digital wallet provided by Payper.
“Interaction with the quizzes and health check also allows us to store data that can be used to track symptoms and spread, as well as gauge where the knowledge gaps about the virus are,” Ueckermann, explains.
The idea behind this chatbot is first to help people who lost their jobs and income due to the lockdown.
The chatbot was also designed to prevent the spread of misinformation and inform
users about the virus in a fun way while earning points.
“Our aim is to integrate these reward points into critical outlets for discounts on essentials like food and medicine,” says Ueckermann.
“This way, those affected by the coronavirus, especially the disadvantaged, can offset some of their expenses on essential products.”
Participating outlets get another way to attract customers and play a part in helping society lessen the effect of the virus.
