To combat inflation, Simeon Simeonov, an 18-year-old high school student, developed an application called “TousAntiInflation“. The goal: to compare product prices between different major retailers to find the best deal.
At just 18 years old and studying at Sasserno High School in Nice, Simeon Simeonov founded an application to address rising prices. An initiative he undertook in December 2022 and developed immediately. His application now has nearly 100,000 registered users. Still in development, it is the great pride of its founder.
When and how did you create and develop this application?
I started developing the application at the end of December when I had the idea. The creation process took time because it was my first mobile application, and I had to learn along the way. It lasted about four months. I entirely created the application on my laptop, in my room or between classes.
How did you come up with this idea?
I was looking for an ambitious project that could help me gain experience and programming skills. That’s when I got the idea to create something related to inflation, which I considered the next big problem of the moment. Then, by observing my mom comparing prices from different retailers to save on groceries, I came up with the idea of a simpler comparator directly accessible on our smartphones.
Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, which ones?
I really enjoy programming. Learning how to create applications wasn’t that difficult for me. However, I faced major challenges in creating a system that retrieves prices in real time. It requires creating small adaptive bots capable of extracting prices from millions of food products across seven different retailer platforms. All within a reasonable loading time for the user, which is less than ten seconds.
Would you say your project is a success?
Yes, to my great surprise, what was supposed to be just a project to familiarize myself with mobile programming turned out to be a massive success. Upon its release, the media frenzy caused thousands of downloads per day. I didn’t expect it at all. Today, 3-4 months after its release, we are nearing a total of almost 100,000 downloads and several thousand uses per day.
Now that your project is tangible and has been developed for a few months, how would you say it has evolved?
The project experienced extremely rapid success, which initially required making it much more professional, especially in terms of practicality. For example, it was necessary to consolidate the servers to accommodate a large number of clients, reduce load times, and resolve potential errors. Today, this situation continues: managing a project of this magnitude requires a lot of time, and I remain fully committed to improving the application.
Where is your application now, and will you be making updates, changes, and improvements?
Following numerous discussions with my users, I am in the process of creating an update that will significantly elevate the application. All prices will be almost instantly available. This will allow users to select the stores they want to compare. Additionally, new retailers and new features will be added to help save money. My long-term goal is to develop a highly professional application so that it becomes a go-to resource for saving on groceries by offering different methods to do so.
What feedback have you received?
Regarding feedback, for the vast majority, everyone has been great. I’ve received many improvement suggestions, people sharing the application on their social media. Others have sent me messages of support. Of course, when the application has errors, users also complain, which is entirely normal. It’s up to me to continuously improve the application until it reaches perfection and enables everyone to save money.
