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meffys logoIn the run up to this year’s Meffys we are profiling the finalists in the different categories.  Today its the turn of the Innovation Award for Mobile First Markets, recognising successful products, services, initiatives, technologies or business models in countries where mobile is the primary digital access point.

The ultimate winners will be announced on October 19th 2015 in at a Gala Dinner taking place in London,  hosted by the legendary musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman

wrm-launch-2Worldreader Mobile (WRM) is a mobile e-reader and library application optimized for inexpensive mobile phones to reach children, families and adults on devices they already own. Designed to work with browsers using extreme compression technology, it offers a fast and data-light reading experience – even in areas with 2G coverage (85% of the world population lives within the area of 2G coverage according to GSMA).

The design of WRM enables people, regardless of the mobile device they own, to have an excellent and affordable reading experience (i.e. the cost to read the equivalent of a 300-page print book on Worldreader is c. $0.08 ). Moreover, Worldreader Mobile enables users to save books to their phones for reading when offline.  With over 18,000 titles in 43 languages, the WRM library covers the spectrum of literacy, from those learning to read, to those reading to learn, to those reading for pleasure. Educational titles complement leveled early-grade readers for our youngest readers, to thrillers and romance novels for some of our oldest.

Worldreader Mobile is also a finalist in the Innovation in Education category.

Opera-Web-PassOpera Web Pass allows operators to package their mobile internet offering in flexible, easy-to-understand and marketable ways, moving beyond confusing, megabyte-based data plans. Customers can easily access the internet by replacing mobile data plans with time or content based packages (such as access to a single social media site for 1 day, or full internet access for 1 hour). 

Operators can easily offer a series of zero-rated free passes to their users to help drive data uptake, with the ability to upgrade them to paid passes upon completion.   Local brands and content providers can sponsor no cost mobile internet to customers by teaming up with operators, this enables brands to extend their reach into new or existing markets as the entire user base of the operator will land on the brands interstitial advert at the start, during and at the expiration of the no–cost data package.  Web Pass uses the capabilities of the Opera Mini platform, such as data compression and the zero-rating of mobile traffic, meaning that not only are the plans tangible and understandable for customers but they can also see data savings of up to 90 per cent.

lulaNomanini’s Lula terminal is a portable PoS device that facilitates cash transactions for vendors in informal markets across seven African countries, enabling them to sell essential services such as mobile airtime, electricity and offer micro-finance services.   

The portable PoS is linked to a cloud-based backend platform on which Nomanini has developed a web-based management tool where all transactional data is communicated to partners via an online portal whom are able to view sales data, manage cash flow and vendors, and perform remote terminal diagnostics, enabling them to manage their distribution channel more effectively.  Nomanini’s PoS has also been developed to offer offline vending so that vendors can continue to sell in locations where mobile connectivity is intermittent.

mymusicMyMusic.com.ng is a music download service targeted at the Nigerian mass market mainly through the mobile internet. Users are presented with a simple music discovery interface that enables them to  download and pay for a song in two clicks using their mobile phone credit. Users also get an SMS with a download link immediately after clicking on the download button for extra attempts if the download fails due to network limitations or other unforeseen circumstances.  On the home screen, users can toggle between top 50 songs, latest songs and editors choice.  It takes less than 15 seconds to pay for and download a track

Nigeria is witnessing one of the fastest mobile broadband growths in the world and there are now over 80 million phones connected to the internet. The Nigerian music industry is the largest in Africa but remains largely un-monetised because of piracy and lack of legitimate distribution channels. Currently, over 50million song downloads occur per month through free blogs and pirate sit

Mozilla Webmaker is a free, independent and open-source Android app that allows smartphone users of any skill level to create original, local content for the Web. Webmaker’s hallmark is accessibility: there’s no coding required, no steep learning curve. Instead, individuals use a simple, visual and intuitive interface to create projects which are composed of three basic content types — text, photos and interactive buttons — but the possibilities are limitless.

Users have created scrapbooks, how-to manuals, games, interactive photo albums, exercise guides, history lessons, art portfolios and more. Webmaker is available in four languages — Bengali, Indonesian, English and Brazilian Portuguese — with more coming soon, all through the support of thousands of Mozilla volunteers around the globe.   With Webmaker, creation is just the beginning. Users can also explore what others around them are making through the app’s Discover feature. Further, all projects are fully re-mixable — users can iterate on and improve others’ work. Discoverability and re-mixability transform mobile-first regions into communities of collaborative content creators.  

The winners will be announced at a glittering Gala Dinner taking place on 19th October at the prestigious Rosewood Hotel – a stunning 5 star venue in the heart of the city.

Tickets are on sale now – be sure to book your VIP table for a front row seat and join the who’s who of the mobile industry at this year’s celebration.

meffy gala dinner

MEF