• What we do
  • The People
  • About Us
  • Why Innovation Africa
  • Contact Us
Innovation AfricaCreating the Future Today
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Kenyan Startup Goes Global

    December 8, 2012 Editor 0

    By Sam Wakoba
    Kenya’s Sematime is going global just months after launching its public beta version August 10.

    According to Boniface Githinji the CEO Tusquee Systems, the firm that developed the software, Sematime has already signed up over 1000 users and due to increasing requests from people across the globe, he says it the right time to take the service to them.

    Githinji said,”Sematime has only been available to users within Kenya but we have been getting requests from people as far as the US. We therefore have gone global and at just US 0.04 per text.”

    Therefore users in Kenya can send bulk SMS to people living outside the country and users from other parts of the world can also sign up and beginning bulk text messaging simply.

    Sematime Goes Global

    According to Githinji, all  Sematime features and services enjoyed by its clients in Kenya will also be available to its international users immediately.

    Sematime offers  SMS branding,  Sematime for Schools, Sematime Ebills services. The payments methods have also been updated with a new Credit card payments processing via Paypal and an instant-on automated SMS branding.

    Sematime was developed by Tusqee Systems which developed School SMS service to enable parents and teachers track their kid’s or students class performance, events and school fees payments from the mobile phone. Sematime grew out of the idea that companies could also use the service to contact their clients.

    Sematime is not just a bulk SMS service but an online service also helping firms send bills and invoices via SMS. The firm also does SMS branding,allows sending of long SMS messages with 400 characters, allows firms or individuals to easily add contacts from Excel files and can also be used by multiple account users.

    According to Githinji, ”The SMS service will make it easy for users to communicate or send bills and invoices via SMS and also take up free SMS branding to send text messages that bear their company name.”

    SMS’s Sent Globally

    Sematime SMS is not outlived. Globally SMS traffic this year passed 8.5 trillion according to Portio Research and expected to grow to 9 trillion per year in the next few years. In five years time, Portio forecasts over 40 trillion SMS carried.

    According to CNN, in 2013 SMS messaging industry will be worth $150 billion-a-year  with mobile carriers charging a set monthly fees for unlimited texting as much as 20 cents per text from about 0.03 cents per text message now.

    Githinji says SMS is still in use and Sematime is not going to run out of business. In the US SMS usage is still strong with 6 billion text messages send daily and stands out as the biggest mobile tool and over 80 percent of the US population own mobile phones.

    Sematime will also be a hit in Africa.

    According to Informa Telecoms, the number of mobile subscriptions in Africa is expected to reach one billion in 2015. Informa says that mobile subscriptions in Africa will hit over 750 million by year end. Sematime might grab some of these as its clients, if its product proves useful however the market is not free range.

    WhatsApp, a free cross-platform mobile messaging app which hit over 1 billion users mark earlier is at the moment looking for translators in a move to spread its user base. WhatsApp Messenger also runs on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.

    In May this year, 2go,a free mobile messenger hit 20 million users and continues to grow. Facebook Messenger is also strongly taking up the space.

    Sematime is also awaiting a 2013 Silicon Valley pitch together with four other regional winners for the Startup World’s Grand Finale  grand finale and is opening up its services to the world before its Silicon Valley Pitch.

    Go to Source

    Related Posts

    • Illuminating the developing world’s “invisible” consumersIlluminating the developing world’s “invisible” consumers
    • Seven things you need to know to turn a start-up into a scale-upSeven things you need to know to turn a start-up into a scale-up
    • Kenyan scientists release five new canning bean varieties after sixty-year waitKenyan scientists release five new canning bean varieties after sixty-year wait
    • The secret life of a World Bank actuaryThe secret life of a World Bank actuary
    • SMEs are good business for Kenya’s growing banking sectorSMEs are good business for Kenya’s growing banking sector
    • Using Technology to Advance Human Rights in KenyaUsing Technology to Advance Human Rights in Kenya
    Sovrn
    Share

    Categories: Feature Articles, mLab

    Tags: Githinji, kenya, Sematime

    Knowledge Transfer across Dissimilar Cultures Find the Next Disruptor Before it Finds You

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to our stories


 

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions September 21, 2020
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics August 3, 2020
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey! August 3, 2020
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic August 3, 2020
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations August 3, 2020

Categories

Archives

Popular Post-All time

  • A review on biomass-based... 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt ge... 682 views
  • Prize-winning projects pr... 678 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 605 views
  • Test Your Value Propositi... 533 views

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey!
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations
  • SME Innovation: 10 Priorities for Support Post-COVID-19 
  • Africa RISING Annual Progress Report 2018 – 2019 now available
  • Fodder beet feed supplementation delivers dairy success for Ethiopian farmers
  • Using theory of change for outcome-oriented research
  • Africa RISING partners publish soil fertility management guidebook

Tag Cloud

    africa African Agriculture Business Business model Business_Finance Company Crowdsourcing data Development East Africa economics Education Entrepreneur entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship ethiopia ghana Health_Medical_Pharma ict Information technology Innovation kenya knowledge Knowledge Management Leadership marketing mobile Mobile phone nigeria Open innovation Organization Research rwanda science Science and technology studies social enterprise social entrepreneurship south africa Strategic management strategy tanzania Technology Technology_Internet uganda

Categories

Archives

  • A review on biomass-based hydrogen production for renewable energy supply 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt gender inequality? 682 views
  • Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments 678 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Big Data Innovations in Agriculture 605 views
  • Test Your Value Proposition: Supercharge Lean Startup and CustDev Principles 533 views

Copyright © 2005-2020 Innovation Africa Theme created by PWT. Powered by WordPress.org