Cape Town-based Every1Mobile (E1M) is using mobile tech to make a positive impact on the lives of the underprivileged.
The company believes mobile phones provide an opportunity for the underprivileged to communicate in ways that previously were not possible.
E1M uses social networks to build mass communities of 15- to 35-year-olds, with a particular focus on health, education, jobs and entertainment. To date, the company has created eight different communities with three more due to come on stream in the near future.
Even with a basic feature phone, the poorest members of society can interact electronically in an affordable way and can address their need for information and answers on subjects they would be reluctant to discuss with their families or even their closest friends, says the company.
"The excitement of what we do is summed up by the fact we, as a company, started from a simple technological premise; achieving social impact for youth at scale via basic mobile phones," says Isabelle Amazon-Brown, head of communities at E1M.
The company has created content teams that generate 70% of the content that is delivered to these communities, with the remainder being provided by the communities or individuals themselves.
"Three years on, we have built a hugely engaged virtual community of young people, across the entire African continent, who every single day are active in conversations with us and with each other, learning crucial life skills, improving their literacy and education, protecting their health, and giving each other advice, at what we believe is an unprecedented scale," Amazon-Brown says.
E1M says it creates "communities of interest" around shared passion points such as soccer, creative writing and health. An example of a thriving E1M community is smartSex - a mobi site designed to demystify some of the most urgent sexual health issues of the day, as well as provide a safe forum for young people to explore their sexuality and the dynamics of relationships, it points out.
SmartSex attracted close to 80 000 girls to its Girl Only peer-to-peer zone in its first month and averages 830 000 visits every month, it notes, adding that users have posed more than 500 000 questions to their resident sexual health expert.
E1M has also partnered with instant messaging distribution companies such as Mxit and Opera Mini to handle communication with these communities, with three additional distribution platforms set to come on stream early in 2014.
While E1M follows the latest trends in technology and social media, the company is looking to build and integrate tools that the majority of its users can realistically use. With 85% of its users utilising feature phones, E1M says it has to sustain a pared-down approach to technology.
According to E1M CEO Algy Williams, there are a number of different parties interested and already participating in and contributing to this initiative. These include market research organisations, advertising and sponsorship companies, companies looking to increase their brand awareness, lead generation entities, and governments or NGOs that are involved in long-term development programmes orientated to the upliftment of the underprivileged.
With smartphone prices going down, the company believes their additional capabilities will open up opportunities for E1M to reach more communities and provide them with more elaborate content, which, in turn, will encourage more investors.
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