Phone app will pay you to take selfies

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - A Chicago company is promising cold hard cash for your selfie's.

'Pay Your Selfie' is a free app that lets users complete selfie challenges for cash.

Challenges are worth anywhere from twenty cents to one dollar.

"The goal is for someone to get to $20 dollars, and you can cash out at 20 dollars, and then start all over again," said co-founder Kristen Holman.

Some of the selfie challenges are sponsored by brands, while others allow you to donate your virtual earnings to charity.

Once a user racks up $20 virtual dollars, they get a real check in the mail.

Holman and her childhood friend, Michelle Smyth, came up with the idea after watching Ellen DiGeneres and Meryl Streep practically break the internet with a selfie taken on a Samsung phone at the 2014 Academy Awards. The selfie seen round the world became a marketing juggernaut for the phone maker.

The women are hoping other brands see the potential.

"This is a generation of people that like to measure, achieve, goal set and we feel like 'Pay Your Selfie' is the kind of a game that helps them achieve that," said Holman.

"Why not pay people to do something that they're already doing?" added Smyth.

Holman and Smyth estimate one hundred million selfie's are snapped every day.

They believe they contain information that advertisers are looking for.

"We're also looking at that information just to see what kinds of insights in consumer trends we can see,"
said Smyth.

'Pay Your Selfie' reserves the right to share the selfie's on their Facebook page and with brand sponsors.