Now, a ‘swadeshi’ app to chat & even search for jobs
Social media is a hot cake and every person uses one or the other medium to interact on social networking sites. Be it chatting, or uploading photos or connecting with ohters. In India, where there are 1 billion mobile subscribers, different apps are very popular. Most of the apps we have in India aren’t ‘Made in India’ though. A start-up company in Maharashtra has now created a new app which it claims to be the first Indian social media app.
The team consisting of 12 IT students’ Pune-based start-up is called ‘TOK-BIZ’ and the app is also of the same name. The ‘TOK-BIZ’ app can be used to chat, to do business, search for jobs and also connect with others.
TOKBIZ allows you to chat with others like WhatsApp, post pictures and videos like Facebook, and put up items for sale and buy like OLX, and even seek jobs.
“The app has lots of interesting functions like, there are features where one can translate the message in different languages. This is particularly for elderly people since they can read messages in their own mother tongues. The other feature is for jobs, where one can upload resumes and companies will go through it without a third party involved. We have tried giving everything for each person,” said Viraj Vabgaonkar, one of the guys who created the app.
The app was launched in July end, but the team had been working for almost five years to create the ‘swadeshi’ app. Pankaj Salunkhe of the team had this concept in his mind and started working on it. “Five years back I had this concept. But it took 3 years to build the app as there were many challenges. There was trial and error and also a lot of technicalities that needed to be sorted. Today, people in many parts of Maharashtra are using this app,” said Pankaj who conceptualised the app.
“We had to face the challenges on every mode. Lots of technical errors had to be corrected, some permissions needed money and all the team members collected money from our own pockets. Once the app was ready and out, we paid off everyone,” said Gautam Patekar, another team member.
They registered the app on Google play store and the response to the app has been overwhelming. Till date, there are more than 3 lakh downloads. The members did not invest in advertising and whatever response they have received till date has been word-of-mouth publicity. They have registered a domain for the app and are still working to improve it.