Summly, a news reading app created by 17-year-old Londoner Nick D’Aloisio, has gone to No 9 in the US App Store just hours after being released.
D’Aloisio, who took time off school to develop the app, has attracted more than US$1m in funding from high-profile supporters that include comedian Stephen Fry, London Tech City CEO Joanna Shields and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The Summly app summarises news stories published on the internet using special algorithms and users just swipe them to see them in full.
According to the BBC, one of the main attractions of Summly is the merging of beautiful design not seen elsewhere on iPhone apps with an algorithm that is summarising thousands of news stories a minute.
The teenager has appointed former Amazon Europe and Badoo executive Bart Swanson as chairman and has long-term plans for the company.
Ultimately, the plan is to see users make micropayments for news stories they wish to read in full.
