At the Global Mobile World Congress awards, dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of the global telecom industry, a Nigerian app was named the world's most innovative mobile app. Sliide Airtime, a unique airtime service for developing countries, won the award.
The Nigerian app beat out strong competition from big-name (and big budget) apps from around the world, such as Australia's Unlockd which is live in Australia, the US and UK and backed by a number of high profile investors; and Buzzvil, headquartered in Korea with users across Japan, Taiwan and the US.
Sliide was launched in Nigeria, in March 2016, to provide users with an easy way to earn free airtime – and discover new content. The app sends personalized news and stories from national and international publishers as well as sponsored content and adverts, based on personal interests, straight to the lock screen of users' phones. Sliide then uses 65% of its advertising revenues to buy mobile data from telcos to give to its users – who can then earn more airtime by completing tasks such as answering surveys from brands.
The service is designed to solve a real-life problem for the hundreds of millions of people living in Africa and other emerging markets: data is expensive relative to average income. Since launch, Sliide's over 50,000 users have continued to receive free airtime every month and their advertisers include Unilever and other multinational companies in Nigeria.
Corbyn Munnik, CEO and founder of Sliide Airtime says:
"What an honour for myself and the Sliide team. This is proof yet again that Africa can produce innovative companies that can change the world."
"We are now raising funds to expand into additional markets; there’s a lot more to achieve as we continue to expand and scale up our offering."
Sliide's other awards include Best African App at the 2016 AppsAfrica Innovation awards in Cape Town, beating off competition from more than 200 submissions from 25 countries. The app was also named the Most Effective Consumer Smartphone App at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards in London, the Mobile Marketing Company of the Year at the annual Nigerian Telecom Awards and winner of the Game-Changing Innovation category at the West Africa Com Awards.
On the heels of all these wins, Sliide is now preparing to launch the service into its second and third markets of South Africa and Pakistan. The app is available for download on the Google Play Store or directly onto your phone.
Source: http://www.konbini.com/ng/lifestyle/a-nigerian-app-was-named-the-worlds-most-innovative-mobile-app/