Everyone is talking about robot journalism, but so far there are hardly any practical applications. One of the few is ReportExpress: The app creates reports of football matches on your smartphone. We asked the Munich-based startup our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your app!
Rafael (38) and I, Gabriel (35), met while studying in Munich. Even back then, we were connected by the topic of football and the question of how to raise the underrepresented reporting in amateur football to a higher level using digital means. So, the media informatics specialist and the communications scientist/sociologist sat down together and developed a concept for an app that could generate fully automated football match reports by simply pressing action and decision buttons. These should, if possible, also meet sports journalistic standards and be stylistically and grammatically error-free: A mammoth task! After almost three years of tinkering, it was finally accomplished: The first app capable of creating user-generated robot match reports was born and launched on the Android market on October 2, 2017, and on December 12, 2017, for iOS devices.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Not at all! That was our motivation. In the field of robot journalism, such an app is a complete novelty. There are already companies that work with computer-generated texts – including in football. But so far – according to our research, there is no app anywhere in the world that creates user-generated football match reports with continuous text. This is also the major advantage of our app over the competition: By clicking on the relevant fields, users decide which match scenes should be included in the reports and how precisely. This way, qualitative aspects of a football match can be captured and match scenes can be reproduced down to the smallest detail. The app user (spectator, fan, club reporter) clicks on action and decision buttons and, at the final whistle, receives high-quality continuous text that realistically depicts the relevant match action. For example, a goal can be described in extreme detail, or the preparatory work for a goal can be accurately reproduced. User-generated computer texts are therefore always more accurate, more detailed, more sophisticated, more informative, higher quality, and faster.
“Robot journalism is a much-discussed topic”
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
The biggest challenge was mastering the task we set ourselves: creating a product that didn't yet exist anywhere in the world. When something doesn't yet exist, you have to design, develop, and create everything yourself. But that can only be achieved through the arduous and exhausting process of trial and error. So, from time to time, we felt a certain amount of development pain, but we always tried to channel it into positive energy—which, admittedly, wasn't always easy.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We can't complain. Robot journalism has been a much-discussed topic in recent years. However, this discourse largely remains theoretical due to a lack of practical examples. Our app comes in handy. Our app clearly demonstrates how robot journalism works in practice. Demand for us as a company and our product is correspondingly high.
Everything for football
5. What does Munich mean to you?
As a native of Munich, my heart naturally beats for this city. I grew up in the Munich area, but I've lived here since I was a student. Rafael also moved to the state capital at an early age. Now we've taken our local roots even further with the founding of our company. As one of Europe's top locations with its well-connected startup scene, Munich is definitely the perfect place for this.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
Inventiveness is rewarded when done right. That's our goal. We're supported in this by a creative network of highly qualified young professionals in our circle of friends.
7. Bavaria or '60?
We love football, and we believe everyone deserves equal attention, regardless of whether they're male or female, young or old, professional or amateur. That's what drives us!
