{"slug": "show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction", "title": "Show HN: Video on the map marketplace 1 year – still bad traction", "summary": "A startup called 'Now & Here' launched an Android app three months ago that lets users request near-real-time video of any location and pays nearby people to record it, aiming to solve the trust problem with outdated or fake location information online. After a year of development, the app has struggled to gain traction, with an empty map except for friends' recordings, despite outreach efforts in Singapore. The founder is seeking feedback and considering a B2B pivot.", "body_md": "After 8 months of development we launched MVP three months ago.\n\nThe idea of \"Now & Here\" came from my own pain: I arrived at hotel after long journey, exhausted - it looks old with noisy renovations on the back side. At that moment I thought: I would pay $20 to someone in each of the 5 nearest hotels to film the real view.\n\nWe solve trust problem: people need to know what a place looks like, but most internet information is outdated, curated, or fake. For example: 1. Hotel and travel websites show polished marketing photos. 2. Google Street View is static and often years old. 3. AI-generated content is making it harder to trust locations online.\n\nWe are made app where people can request closed to real-time video from any location and nearby people can earn money by recording video fot those requests.\n\nWe built android app with all necessary mvp features: - map with tasks and videos - tasks creation and execution flow - video viewing and recording payed and free - wallet with USDT (crypto just for demo, we don't have bank account now)\n\nWe wanted to start from Singapore. We tried to send letters to cafes, restoraunts, hotels, make a campaigns with tasks, tried to message people in telegram, but still has empty map (except points recorded by my friends).\n\nSome of our users asked about iPhone version of app. However, right now we have resources only for app and frontend (project built with me and my friend - both are the very experinced in IT).\n\nI know unit economics are not so great. I don't care about money yet. I just want users. I just want to make product which help travellers and solve my pain.\n\nSome materials:\n1. video, which described main idea - [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3aja8Y_cfEI](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3aja8Y_cfEI)\n2. The app is live - [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blockwit.h...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blockwit.han)\n3. Small site - [https://nowahere.com/brand/](https://nowahere.com/brand/)\n\nMay be somone can give me advice. May be wee need to go to B2B, may be we are doing something wrong.\n\nPlease, give us hardest feedback. We've survived a year. I won't give up until this startup works.\n\nComments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48610459](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48610459)\n\nPoints: 1\n\n# Comments: 0", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction", "canonical_source": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48610459", "published_at": "2026-06-20 16:22:54+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-20 16:37:06.364067+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products", "ai-startups", "computer-vision"], "entities": ["Now & Here", "Google Street View", "Singapore", "Android", "USDT"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-video-on-the-map-marketplace-1-year-still-bad-traction.jsonld"}}