Prostitutes in Germany Contact Clients via New Peppr App
Flesh trade workers in Germany have gone high-tech, tapping the newly released Peppr app to get clients. The app works like a dating site which matches customer and prostitute, making it the Tinder of the sex industry.
Peppr was created by a Berlin-based startup which markets the app as the first mobile Web app for booking erotic entertainment, reports Time.
It works with the prospective client listing their location, acknowledging they are at least 18 years old and selecting the gender of the sex worker. They are then given a choice with photos and profiles of men or women who agree to paid sex.
It is free for sex trade workers to be listed on Peppr, but customers must pay €5 to €10 for each booking. The list includes the types of services offered and the body types of the prostitutes.
Pia Poppenreiter, the co-founder of the startup that created Peppr, said the idea to create the app came while she was walking along Oranienburger Straße on a chilly night and pitied the prostitutes out in the cold soliciting customers.
Prostitution is legal in Germany since 2002, with about 400,000 sex trade workers. But most of them are foreigners from poorer European nations such as Bulgaria and Romania.
With trafficking victims reaching 23,600 in Europe, Poppenreiter does her part in halting the practice by talking over the phone to the sex trade workers who enlist with Peppr if they are doing so voluntarily or are forced by white slavery rings. However, she admitted it is difficult to verify the latter.
In launching the app on April 1, Poppenreiter said, "We're trying to revolutionize the image of sex work in general ... We're trying to get it away from its shabby image."