VoSpine marketing director Danstan Wanyonyi (Left) and co-founders
Sydney Rema (Centre) and Phelix Juma (Right). PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
By LYNET IGADWAH ligadwah@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- VoSpine, created by UoN students Sidney Rema and Phelix Juma, allows users to share content relevant to their pursuits.
- VoSpine is run by a team of 14 young entrepreneurs, all UoN students, each with diverse knowledge in different sectors of the economy.
- Over 70 per cent of the team has had formal experience in employment with Equity Group under the Equity Leaders Programme.
Johnson Kamau, a business student at the University
of Nairobi (UoN), was in search of an alternative income as he studied.
He settled on horticulture and went in search of an investor to help him
get his new venture off the ground.
The avid social media user stumbled upon VoSpine, a local Internet based networking platform.
VoSpine, created by Sidney Rema and Phelix Juma —
both 22 years old— is a social media platform similar to Facebook with
an added filter that allows users to pick out content in line with their
interests.
If a person’s interests are for instance in
business and photography, information about fashion and health will
feature nowhere in their feeds.
Danstan Wanyonyi, 23, the VoSpine marketing
director, is scheduled to attend the One Young World Summit in Ottawa,
Canada, in September, an opportunity he learnt about through VoSpine.
“My interests are in business startups and this is
how I learnt of the global forum, registered for it and got selected to
be among participants,” said Mr Wanyonyi, an Electrical and Engineering
student at UoN.
At the annual summit, mentors empower young leaders
aged between 18 and 30 to develop solutions to the world’s most
pressing issues. Mr Wanyonyi will have the privilege of being mentored
by billionaire Richard Branson, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
and former US president Bill Clinton, among others.
VoSpine co-founders Rema and Juma say that the main idea behind the platform is to revolutionalise how people interact online.
The co-founders believe that the platform,
created for similar minded individuals with common interests to interact
across the world, will add value to the time spent on social media.
Meaningful interaction
Creation of VoSpine was motivated by results of a
study by US-based think tank PewResearch Centre which showed 76 per cent
of Internet users were shying away from social platforms due to the
prevalence of irrelevant content.
“This narrowing down ensures that a user has more
meaningful interaction and benefits from the information shared online,”
said Mr Rema, a Medicine and Surgery student at UoN.
Much like other social media sites, there are no
restrictions to sign up. However, users must have a clear idea of what
subjects are of interest to them. Upon joining, a user is asked to
specify interests — which are referred to as channels on the platform.
They include Photography, Technology, Business, Health, Fashion,
Christianity and Lifestyle, among others.
These categories can be further narrowed down, for
instance a user with interest in business can filter down to startups,
economy and real estate.
Aside from getting feeds on relevant areas the
platform, which connects people just like Facebook, allows users to
connect with experts and mentors in their areas of interest.
Users can also create threads through which other
users with similar interests can like, comment on and post links to
bigger, related subjects.
This allows users to be in the know of trending topics in their area of interest and get tips too.
The platform started operating in October 2015 and has to date registered over 21,000 users across its various channels.
Of these, 7,000 are daily users. This, according to
the founders, is a clear indication of the thirst for a platform such
as VoSpine.
The data, which is pooled in a central server, can
be accessed by users both on the webpage and on the mobile app.
Accorsing to Mr Rema; “averagely, in a day there are over 3,000 users on
the app which has a total user base of about 4,500. The rest access
using the website.” The Android app can be downloaded from Google Play
Store. The initial plan was to restrict the platform to students but
over time it has been opened up to include people from all walks of
life.
“Those who have signed up can follow a thread of
activities as well as inbox whoever they want for private
conversations,” said Mr Juma.
The name VoSpine pays homage to the medical career path of one of the co-founders as it combines two words; voice and spine.
The voice being from the instant audience that
users get upon signing up and the spine is reminiscent of their
strengthened backbone of information.
Promotion posts
The platform generates revenue through running advertisements in the form of promotion posts, events and opportunities.
The platform generates revenue through running advertisements in the form of promotion posts, events and opportunities.
Additionally, news sites subscribe periodically to have their content targeted to a particular audience.
VoSpine is run by a team of 14 young entrepreneurs,
all UoN students, each with diverse knowledge in different sectors of
the economy.
Over 70 per cent of the team has had formal
experience in employment with Equity Group under the Equity Leaders
Programme (ELP) after being ranked among top performers nationally in
the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
The team saved itself overhead costs when it won a
slot in the C4D Incubation Lab at UoN after emerging among the five best
tech startups in the institution.
At the C4D Incubation Lab young innovators are
mentored on their projects and provided with resources to take their
enterprises to the next level.
VoSpine is not the first thing that these innovators tried their hands on. It is actually the fourth.
“Our initial startups did not work out since we were still
learning and had not at the time appreciated the power of teamwork, but
the team behind VoSpine is incredible,” said Mr Rema, adding that focus
now is on offering African solutions for African problems
Users can also create threads through which other
users with similar interests can like, comment on and post links to
bigger, related subjects.
mobile app.
Accorsing to Mr Rema; “averagely, in a day there are over 3,000 users on
the app which has a total user base of about 4,500. The rest access
using the website.” The Android app can be downloaded from Google Play
Store. The initial plan was to restrict the platform to students but
over time it has been opened up to include people from all walks of
life.
“Those who have signed up can follow a thread of
activities as well as inbox whoever they want for private
conversations,” said Mr Juma.
The name VoSpine pays homage to the medical career path of one of the co-founders as it combines two words; voice and spine.
The voice being from the instant audience that
users get upon signing up and the spine is reminiscent of their
strengthened backbone of information.
Promotion posts
The platform generates revenue through running advertisements in the form of promotion posts, events and opportunities.
The platform generates revenue through running advertisements in the form of promotion posts, events and opportunities.
Additionally, news sites subscribe periodically to have their content targeted to a particular audience.
VoSpine is run by a team of 14 young entrepreneurs,
all UoN students, each with diverse knowledge in different sectors of
the economy.
Over 70 per cent of the team has had formal
experience in employment with Equity Group under the Equity Leaders
Programme (ELP) after being ranked among top performers nationally in
the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
The team saved itself overhead costs when it won a
slot in the C4D Incubation Lab at UoN after emerging among the five best
tech startups in the institution.
At the C4D Incubation Lab young innovators are
mentored on their projects and provided with resources to take their
enterprises to the next level.
VoSpine is not the first thing that these innovators tried their hands on. It is actually the fourth.
“Our initial startups did not work out since we were still
learning and had not at the time appreciated the power of teamwork, but
the team behind VoSpine is incredible,” said Mr Rema, adding that focus
now is on offering African solutions for African problem
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