Demand for data among African consumers is enormous, “There’s a correlation between how much data consumers can afford and how sociable they can be,” said the co-founder of Sliide.
Munnik created Sliide with Frankie Kearney, who develops and manages the technology platform from London. The start-up duo appointed Stephen Carl, a former head of products and services at Vodafone Group, as its chief technology officer. In South Africa, it has appointed former MTNer Edward Wicks as its country manager
Sliide initially launched in Nigeria in March 2016 after beta-testing the service in the UK. Sliide contineus working closely with MTN and Etisalat, though the company has “integrated into all” of the operators. It has already signed up more than 100 000 users, of which two-thirds are using the service actively.
The app tells users how much money they’ve earned. Users can “cash-out” to receive airtime, which is then automatically loaded by the network operator partner.
“Users can also load extra airtime, for example through the banks. A bank might want to get their app on everyone’s phone, so it might give users free airtime for downloading it,” explained co-founder and CEO Corbyn Munnik, who describes the app as a “cross between Flipboard and Facebook Free Basics”.
If the trend of consumer buy-in continues through the download numbers, we can anticipate participation by more African telecommunication networks.
The Sliide app can be downloaded through the Google Play Store, or directly via downloading APK files, which is where a majority of the installations come from.
Express yourself more freely with Sliide.
