A new Israeli social Q&A platform called yes.no celebrated its beta launch by inviting users to send questions to a variety of Israeli high-tech pioneers, and by creating a very cool infographic, “The Evolution of Israeli Innovation.”
“It’s no secret that Israel is the land of milk, honey and high-tech. In 2015, its 7,000 startups are second in number only to the US, despite its population of just over 8 million,” blogged founders Assaf Levy and Sella Rafaeli.
They established yes.no in Tel Aviv last April “to address the often one-sided and shallow nature of social networking interactions by creating a new network that trades on valuable and respectful dialogue through questions and answers.”
Their unique platform is already available in 11 languages and will grow to 30, Levy tells ISRAEL21c.
He explains that although Q&A websites are not unique (answers.com is another Israeli invention), “nobody resolved the issue of how to ask questions to a specific person.” On yes.no, the user crowd votes to determine the best questions and the site administrators forward those questions to the designated expert, politician or celebrity.
The 18 high-tech pioneers featured first on the yes.no site include superstars such as Gil Shwed of Check Point, behavioral economics guru Dan Ariely, ICQ messaging inventor Yair Goldfinger and Zeekit founder Yael Vizel.
“Hopefully in the future our site will be entertaining enough and popular enough so that the famous person will engage with it directly,” says Levy, whose staff of seven plans to introduce iOS and Android apps in early 2016.
CEO Levy recently took his XLMedia public on the London Stock Exchange, while CTO Rafaeli is formerly of Fiverr and is a veteran of the famed military intelligence Unit 8200.
Israel is an environment of intense innovation, these high-tech execs say.
“In its 67 years Israel has gone from desert to one of only eight countries that have individually launched satellites, winning 12 Nobel Prizes, and inventing many game-changing products, such as the USB flash drive and the PillCam,” the founders explain, noting that Israeli startups have had a record-breaking year for money raised in acquisitions ($5.7 billion in the first half of 2015) and capital ($7.4 billion from January to September).
“Israel’s high-tech industry, affectionately dubbed Silicon Wadi, is revered worldwide – with Tel Aviv named the world’s number two startup ecosystem and a leading city for innovation.”
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