Tech

Want a hooker in Germany? There’s an app for that

German prostitutes may soon be saying ‘auf wiedersehen’ to walking the streets.

A new app is connecting ladies – and gentlemen – of the night with prospective clients in the same area – similar to how Uber and Tinder connect users to cars and dates.

Billing itself as the “first mobile Web app for booking erotic entertainment,” the Berlin-based service Peppr was launched at the beginning of April and will be available in other German cities soon, according to a company press release. Prostitution is legal in Germany.

Users can browse photos and profiles of nearby male and female prostitutes, narrowing their options down by filtering for price, age, physical attributes and “extras” like “leather fetish” or “dinner date.”

Setting up a profile is free for sex workers, but clients have to pony up a booking fee equal to about $7 and $14.

“Our intention is to provide a neutral platform on which men and women can arrange meetings relaxed and safe,” CEO Pia Poppenreiter said in the release.

She dreamed up the idea after observing prostitutes standing around outside on a cold winter day trying to lure in clients. Prostitution has been legal in Germany since 2002, but Poppenreiter was dismayed that its negative image has remained much the same.

“I was walking down Oranienburger Strasse – I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s the truth – it was chilly and I saw the poor girls on the streets, and I thought, why isn’t there an app? It’s not efficient to wait outside,” she told German newspaper The Local in April.

“We’re trying to revolutionize the image of sex work in general,” she added. “We’re trying to get it away from its shabby image.”

The company is combating against human traffickers who might want to advertise on the site by speaking over the telephone with all prostitutes interested in signing up. Peppr isn’t working with brothels either, only solo sex workers and escort agencies.

“We try to ask them – you kind of find out in a conversation whether they’re doing it on a voluntary basis – we ask them what they did before, whether they’ve always worked voluntarily and so on,” she told the newspaper.

Prostitution is big business in Germany: The industry brings in around $21 billion a year, according to The Telegraph.