Vodacom says its zero-rated ConnectU platform has witnessed “exponential growth”, with more than 34 million unique users accessing the platform over the past two years.
This, according to the telephony group, equates to an average of 3.5 million new unique users month-on-month.
Introduced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, the portal was designed to provide content aimed at social development and offers a variety of essential services free of charge.
It focuses on providing information based on specific key pillars: education, jobs, social, health, safety and security, government and SMMEs. Jobs, health and education rank as the top three visited pillars, notes Vodacom.
The education pillar provides zero-rated access to universities, TVET colleges, early childhood development centres, Vodacom’s e-School platform, and other educational categories.
This pillar has the highest rate of unique visitors, with 68 000 unique visitors per month on average, according to the mobile operator.
“When we launched ConnectU two years ago, we wanted to provide an innovative digital solution that would allow Vodacom customers to access critical information and essential services online at no additional cost,” says Melanie Forbes, managing executive of consumer marketing and insights at Vodacom South Africa.
“Since then, the portal has gone from strength to strength, helping millions of South Africans overcome challenges they are facing off the back of the pandemic and ongoing unemployment. ConnectU is driving digital inclusion for all, which underpins our purpose as a techco.”
Vodacom says since its launch, ConnectU has zero-rated more than 770 institutions and over 1 400 URLs, including the national departments of health, home affairs and education.
To address the high level of unemployment in the country, Vodacom also launched Get-a-Gig, a job portal with a three-year vision of connecting one million youth to jobs or gigs by 2024.
The mobile operator reveals it has extended its Get-a-Gig initiative to now offer job or gig opportunities to everyone on the Vodacom network, in order to participate in the gig economy.
Get-a-Gig, now available through the ConnectU platform, is accessible under the jobs pillar. This free job portal matches a jobseeker to a job or an opportunity within Vodacom and its external partners, giving any jobseeker on Vodacom a fighting chance at employment.
“Our Get-a-Gig platform is powered by JOBJACK, a company that shares the same vision as us on job creation and driving economic participation in South Africa. We are excited to partner with them. Together we believe we can contribute to fighting the scourge, one job at a time, and take South Africa further.
“At Vodacom, we believe in the power of technology to transform lives and our goal is to connect the next 100 million customers by 2025. ConnectU supports this vision, providing transformative socio-economic development opportunities online at no data cost, and encouraging participation in the digital economy now and into the future,” Forbes concludes.
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