Whive Team Recieving Prize
John Karanja, Sociologist and Businessman is founder of Whive.com, a platform for Connecting Africans using technology. He specializes in Research and Development for African technology. Whive.com is a mobile and web social media platform where people interact using different forms of media.He obtained a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Oxford, England and a Bachelor of Business and Information Technology from Strathmore University, Kenya. John has worked for Cymap Business Solutions as the Chief Technology Officer involved in servicing fund management information systems for leading financial institutions in Kenya. He has 7 years experience in developing web solutions both for small enterprises and larger organizations. He specializes in quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as social media marketing. With this background, John has recently been involved in a number of ongoing projects that involve the analysis of the social impact of ICT in Africa as well as projecting possible growth areas of ICT based solutions for the continent. He has received a series of covetable Honors and Awards which include:? Pivot25 Winner in Gaming, Utilities and Entertainment category, Best Software at Maker Faire Africa 2010, Vision 2030 ICT award(2011) for the Gender, Youth and Vulnerable Groups sector, Winner of the1st Africa Open Screen Fund. In this interview with Rotimi Olawale, John speaks about crossing 100,000 subscribers for whive.com, technology and innovation in Africa amongst several issues
John Karanja
What is whive.com all about:
Whive is a Social Media Services (SMS) platform built that allows Africans to send text Messages to anyone in the world. Whive has applications built for every major platform namely Web, Mobile,Facebook,Twitter and Symbian (Nokia) which are increasingly being used in the continent. Whive SMS is available in Swahili, English and French which are the 3 main languages spoken in Africa.
When was whive.com launched?
I first launched it as a Social Networking website in 2008 while I was in college. I immediately faced a huge challenge as Facebook started growing in Kenya after which I pivoted away from social networking to offering social media services in 2010.I launched Whive as an integrated social media platform at Maker Faire Africa 2010 where it won the Best Software Category. I focused on the business after graduating and we opened our office in January 2011 and since then I have been able to employ 3 permanent staff. Whive SMS has since won 2 other awards including the Kenya Vision 2030 ICT award for innovation in the youth sector and the Pivot25 Mobile Competition in Nairobi June 2011.
How does it feel reaching a crucial landmark of 100,000 subscribers?
It is very exciting for us however it is a reminder that we now need to focus on building customer engagement and making sure user experience is excellent. This is a very challenging task considering the structural and infrastructural challenges we face in the Kenyan (African) context. We look forward to rolling our content services in the near future that will see our subscribers become more active users of our platform.
Across the world, there is an emerging opinion that Kenya is leading the African continent in areas of technology and innovation, what is your take on this and in your opinion what factor is responsible for this?
I think Kenya is definitely leading in some key aspects of technology particularly mobile money innovation and small business applications. This is because Kenyans have hundreds if not thousands of daily obstacles in their lives and thus become innovative in circumventing these challenges. Having said that a lot of work has to be done in mentoring upcoming businessmen especially regarding legal issues. However I think Kenyans including the government have done a commendable job in the last 2 years which should put us firmly in the lead as far as mobile innovation is concerned.
John Karanja Pitching Whive at Pivot 25
What is whive.com’s target over the next 5 years?
Whive is targeting to be the primary platform for the integration of social media services in the African continent. This is chiefly because we put a lot of effort in understanding the African Context and possible solutions. The next 5 years will definitely be about forming partnerships and growing the business into a household name.
What advise do you have for young innovators in Africa about taking their products to market?
Just do it, however try and understand a problem and define a plausible solution. The African market is changing rapidly so you have to plan to iterate. Innovators should not be afraid to share their ideas with others as this is the only way to get going. It is also very important to consult the right people as they save you a lot of worry. Failure is also success especially if you take it the right way.
