Unlockar Apps Private Limited, a mobile product start-up based out of New Delhi has opened its flagship android app “Unlockar” to the East African markets following a product launch in Kenya.
Unlockar, a lock screen based app that aims to subsidize data costs for its users by rewarding them along with providing user preferred curated content for android lock screens would be available under its maiden name for the initial duration of a pilot project during which the company would fine tune its reward mechanism to best suit the needs of Kenyan users. After the duration of the pilot, the app would be white-labelled to have a local or Kiswahili name.
Leading the talks from Unlockar’s end, Pulkit Ahuja, Co-founder and Director of Unlockar, said “This is a good first step in a series of International launches lined up in the upcoming weeks. The learning we gain in the pilots would help us better understand the user behaviour in newer markets and accordingly better adapt our content serving and reward mechanisms to best suit our users’ expectations”
During the initial few months of the launch, the East African users of the app will only be able to redeem their uCoins (Unlockar reward currency) for airtime minutes and mobile money and would not have access to other redemption options that are currently available to the app’s Indian users. Also, the new version of the app would support Swahili as one of the language options apart from Hindi and English making the app a multi lingual one.
“The Unlockar concept is awesome and will spread like fire in this market. We are happy to tie-up with them and make the benefits of this app available to our users” said Symon Ndirangu, Co-founder and Chief Strategist of DialMobi, which is one of the partners in Unlockar’s consortium of East African tie-ups.
Unlockar is in the final stages of app launch in Malaysian and Indonesian markets as well. “Localised content serving and user preferred reward partner tie-ups are two of Unlockar’s key pillars, and our team is working on establishing strong niches on both these fronts in markets outside India as we prepare for our other International launches”, Pulkit added.
