什么是HQ？怎么玩？能嬴多錢？

沒有負面影響這么一說，對吧？

魯斯?尤蘇波夫可能會這樣對自己說，作為新的小知識互動app HQ首席執行官，尤蘇波夫本周接受流行文化網站Daily Beast記者采訪時有些“失控”，讓自己受到了一些不必要的關注。當然，他的熱門app本周之前就已經得到了相當規模的報道，某些時段的直播吸引了超過10萬人同時在線觀看。這款移動小知識app的火爆在一定程度上要歸功于受歡迎的喜劇演員主持人，而且目前來看就連一些公關失誤也不會延緩HQ的增長速度。

鑒于其受關注程度——這款游戲已經有了“讓人上癮”的名號，甚至有報道認為它可能就是電視的未來——《財富》覺得攢一份方便的HQ指南對所有想了解這款熱門app的人來說應該有所幫助。

HQ是什么？

尤蘇波夫及其合伙人科林?克羅爾聯手打造了短視頻分享app Vine。推特四年前收購了Vine，去年則表示要停止運營這款app。尤蘇波夫和克羅爾隨后推出了一系列app，其中包括一直未能真正起步的直播app Hype。但尤蘇波夫最近告訴娛樂新聞網站Variety，他的團隊注意到了Hype用戶制作的游戲直播類內容很受歡迎，這促成了HQ的開發。今年8月上線后，關注這款小知識測試直播app的移動用戶群體穩步增長。HQ每個工作日直播兩次，每次15分鐘，參與者要回答一系列多選小知識問題，從而有機會贏取現金獎勵。

怎么玩？

所有iOS用戶都可下載這款免費app并創建用戶名，然后就可以進入HQ的所有日常直播小知識游戲了。直播通常由喜劇演員斯科特?羅戈夫斯基主持，工作日直播兩次，分別在美國東部時間下午3點和晚上9點開始，周末只在晚上9點直播一次。直播中，主持人會迅速提出十幾個小知識問題，內容幾乎無所不包（科技、體育、流行文化等等）。答題時間為10秒鐘，如果全部答對，就可參與當次直播的獎金池分成。用邀請碼成功邀請朋友使用這款app的參與者還可以獲得“額外生命”，也就是可以在答錯一題后繼續游戲，從而提高了獲得獎金的幾率。

能贏多少錢？

HQ的獎金池規模不固定。夏天剛上線時，獎金池約為100美元，近幾周則攀升到了數千美元。Variety本周二發現，迄今為止個人參賽者的最高獎金只超過500美元一點點，但這家初創公司希望它的獎金池有朝一日可以達到100萬美元，這樣參賽者的獎金就會大幅上升。這些獎金通過貝寶賬戶支付。

有安卓版嗎？

目前HQ僅供蘋果iOS設備下載，但該公司表示將很快推出安卓版。

為什么大家都在談論HQ？

除了越發受到用戶青睞以外，HQ本周受到媒體關注的另一個原因是尤蘇波夫周二試圖阻止Daily Beast刊登主持人羅戈夫斯基的特寫，但未能成功。尤蘇波夫對Daily Beast記者泰勒?洛倫茨說，如果不通過HQ的公關部門就報道羅戈夫斯基的情況，她就會“讓斯科特的工作面臨危險”，比如有可能遭解雇。洛倫茨則把尤蘇波夫的短時“胡言亂語”寫進了羅戈夫斯基的報道中，在其中的一段對話里，尤蘇波夫竭力反對她在文章中透露羅戈夫斯基喜歡到某家餐館買沙拉的趣聞（提示：就是Sweetgreen）。

在網上遭到眾人嘲笑后，尤蘇波夫似乎意識到自己想扼殺這篇報道的行為實屬過分，他在推特上發文向洛倫茨道歉，并附上了一張他和羅戈夫斯基吃Sweetgreen沙拉的圖片。他還在后續采訪中告訴洛倫茨：“我不想炒掉斯科特，他可是自己人?！?

作者：Tom Huddleston Jr.

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?

That could be what Rus Yusupov, CEO of the new HQ trivia app, is telling himself after his “off the rails” interview with a Daily Beast reporter this week thrust him into an unwanted spotlight. Of course, Yusupov’s popular app was already earning a fair amount of buzz before this week, with some time slots for the app’s live trivia game show pulling in more than 100,000 simultaneous viewers each. The mobile trivia app has gone viral, thanks in part to the game’s popular comedian host, and it’s now looking like even some bad PR won’t slow down HQ.

Considering how much buzz the app is getting—the game has been called “addictive” and one publication even mused that the game-show app could be the “Future of TV”—Fortune thought it would be helpful to put together a handy guide to HQ for anyone wondering what all the fuss is about.

What is HQ?

Yusupov and partner Colin Kroll, both co-founders of the short-video sharing app Vine, launched a series of apps after Twitter announced it would shut down Vine last year after having acquired it four years earlier. The new apps included the live video broadcasting app Hype, which never really took off. But Yusupov told Variety recently that his team took note of the popularity of game show-type content that Hype’s users were creating, which led to the development of HQ. The quiz-show app launched in August and has steadily built a strong following of mobile users who tune in to one of the app’s twice daily (on weekdays), 15-minute game shows for the chance to win real cash prizes by answering a series of multiple-choice general trivia questions.

How do you play?

Any iOS user can download the free app and create a username, which then grants them access to any of HQ’s daily live trivia games. The shows, usually hosted by comedian Scott Rogowsky, go live at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST on weekdays, with only one show (at 9 p.m. EST) on weekends. Each show involves the host presenting about a dozen rapid-fire trivia questions on topics that cover pretty much anything under the sun (ranging from tech to sports to pop culture, etc.). If you answer every question correctly within 10 seconds each, you’ll split the cash prize pool for that given show. Users who invite friends to join the app with a referral code can also earn “extra lives” that allow them to get back into a game even if they answer a question incorrectly, thus giving them additional opportunities to win money.

How much can you win?

The size of HQ’s prize pools tend to vary. When the app launched over the summer, the pools were about $100, but they’ve climbed into the thousands of dollars in recent weeks. Variety noted on Tuesday that the most money any individual player had won to that point was just over $500 over the course of multiple games, but the startup hopes to one day offer prize pools as big as $1 million, which would mean significantly richer payouts to players. The winnings are delivered to players by linking a PayPal account.

Is it available for Android?

At the moment, HQ is only available for download on Apple’s iOS devices, but the company says that an Android version is coming soon.

Why is everyone talking about HQ?

Aside from the app’s growing popularity with users, HQ made headlines this week after Yusupov made a failed attempt to stop the Daily Beast from publishing a profile of HQ host Rogowsky on Tuesday. Yusupov told Daily Beast reporter Taylor Lorenz that she was “putting Scott’s job in jeopardy” —i.e. he could be fired—if she published a profile on the game show host without going through HQ’s public relations operation. Lorenz went on to publish quotes from Yusupov’s mini-freakout as part of the Rogowsky story, including an exchange in which the CEO strongly objected to her inclusion in the article of a personal tidbit about the restaurant where Rogowsky prefers to buy salads (hint: it’s Sweetgreen).

After being roundly mocked online, Yusupov seemed to recognize that he’d gone too far in trying to kill the story and he apologized to Lorenz in a Twitter post featuring a picture of himself with Rogowsky, eating a Sweetgreen salad. He also told Lorenz in a follow-up interview: “I don’t want to fire Scott. Scott is our guy.”