Conversation between Fritz and Fee on iYam.mobi

Fritz: Hi Fee.

Fee: Hi Fritz.

Fritz: So this is one of those bizarre moments when you talk to yourself, huh ?

Fee: I guess it is.

Fritz: What do you suggest we talk about today ?

Fee: How about we do a talk on the new product I am about to launch, iYam.mobi. Some nice folks out there might be interested in the whats and whys and hows even before launch.

Fritz: That will be cool. It definitely might give some answers to those who want to know what you’ve been cooking up lately, especially after the success of your online classifieds site Kerawa.com has had in Cameroon for some years now.

Fee: That’s the idea. If we’re cool with the concept, I’ll play myself. An African geek, who is now trying to obtain more money from his passion. You’ll play the Cameroonian journalist who likes reporting more on tech than politics. Strange, huh ?

Fritz: What’s strange ? You having a conversation with yourself, or a Cameroonian journalist reporting on tech.

Fee: Both actually.
Fee: Do you think we can do this ?

Fritz: Definitely. I like this idea. Shall we begin ?

Fee: Alright, then. We need to do formal introductions. You first.

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Fritz: Hi, me. I am you, and I am here to interview myself.

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Fee: Fritz, could you please be a bit more serious about all of this. It’s important to me you know.

Fritz: Sorry about that. Let’s start all over again. Hi Fee. I’m Fritz, local tech reporter. I am here to interview you.

Fee: Hi Fritz.

Fritz: Word of mouth has it that you’re launching a new product ? Something mobile phone related ?

Fee: Yes I am. It’s called iYam. Actually, iYam’s not entirely a new project. This is an improvement to a previous idea I had in 2009.

Fritz: You say it’s called iYam ? You mean like “I am” ?

Fee: Yes. But it has a Y between “I” and “am”.

Fritz: Nice name. I’m curious already. In your own words, could you please tell me what iYam is?

Fee: iYam is my little baby.

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Fritz: That isn’t descriptive enough.

Fee: Well to be fair, you said in my own words.

Fritz: Fair enough. Let’s try another approach. What does iYam do?

Fee: iYam permits you to find anyone , including lots of SMS apps that make your phone more useful and fun. How it does that is by serving two original offerings : a mobile mobile phonebook, and an SMS Apps Store.

Fritz: Alright, slow down now. Slow down. First I spotted tautology. You mentioned a mobile mobile phonebook. Secondly,you mentioned an SMS Apps Store. What’s an SMS Apps Store supposed to mean ? Do you sell bulk SMS online ?How will you get money ? What’s your target market ? Do you have enough money to market to your intended audience ? Are you even listening to me ?

Fee: You know Fritz, you happen to play your role of a journalist very well. You’re asking more questions than I can humanly answer at the same time.

Fritz: Thanks for the complement Fee.

Fee: That was actually sarcasm.

Fritz: Touché. But you’re avoiding the questions. What’s a mobile mobile phone directory?

Fee: First, Fritz, I would like to point out to you that that phrase isn’t tautology. It truly is a mobile mobile phone directory.

Fritz: Tell me about it.

Fee: Do you know that in Cameroon, with an estimated population of 16 million inhabitants, there are only 100 000 land line subscribers ? However, these subscribers have the luxury of having a phone book. We’re in 2010. The latest CAMTEL phone book version is 2007. I would consider that outdated. But still, land line subscribers do benefit from a phonebook.

Fee: However, there are an estimated 7 million mobile phone subscribers in Cameroon. About 70 times the size of the fixed line market. Mobile phones are used everywhere. Friends, family, businesses use these mobile phones. But they don’t have a phonebook. That’s a lost opportunity to aid development.

Fritz: So you want to make a mobile phone directory, huh? That’s crazy ? Do you see the size of the Camtel phonebook ? And it has only 100 000 subscribers. If you do the same thing for mobile phones, people will have to buy encyclopedias at home!

Fee: No tree is going to be destroyed in order to make the mobile phone book I am talking about. You want to know why ?

Fritz: Why ?

Fee: Because this mobile phone book will work on a mobile phone. Hence the mobile mobile phone directory.

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Fritz: Ok. It’s official. I’m confused.

Fee: You need not be. Let me explain to you how it works.

Fritz : Please do.

Fee: Let’s say you know my name is ekwoge fritz. All you have to do is send the following SMS to a dedicated number : “Find Ekwoge Fritz”. And my contact details will be shown in a response SMS.

Fritz: That’s it ?

Fee: That’s it. You text “Find Restaurant Douala”, and the contact details of restaurants in Douala will appear in a response SMS. Other examples are “Find lawyer Yaounde”, and so on.

Fritz: But where does it get all these contacts from ?

Fee: It’s user generated. In order to be found on iYam, all you have to do is register. You send the following example SMS to a dedicated number: “iYam Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge. Software Engineer. Limbe. CISA. Co-founder Kerawa.com, founder iYam.mobi. CEO FeePerfect” And that’s it. Whatever you use to describe yourself, that’s what anyone will be able to use to find you.

Fritz: That’s brilliant. And soooooo simple. Why hadn’t I thought about it (smiles) ? Can I test it ?

Fee: Unfortunately no.

Fritz: Why ?

Fee: Because what I am describing was a 2009 prototype version of iYam. A proof of concept version. It was hosted on a laptop in my home, connected to a mobile phone via bluetooth. No need for internet. I tested it out with some geeks for some months. Many thought it was great. But I knew it could not scale with such a modest setup. I also knew it was not reliable, especially with the frequent power failures we have. And I was losing money everytime someone used the service. Furthermore, at that time, I was still a consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Here is a video to show you how it worked:

Fritz: That looks sleek. What happened then ? Did you kill it ?

Fee: No, I didn’t. I believe I’ve upgraded it. The mobile mobile phone book is now part of a bigger plan. I will show you how the new mobile phone directory works when doing a demo of the current product.

Fritz : What bigger plan are you talking about?

Fee: Not only does iYam.mobi offer a mobile phone book, it now includes an SMS Apps Store.

Fritz: Ah the SMS Apps Store. You know I am a bit confused with the term. When you hear about an Apps Store, you immediately think of Apple’s Apps Store. I don’t see how it relates to SMS. Though remarkable exceptions exist, most SMS-related sites online just sell bulk SMS. Is that what you are doing ?

Fee: Kind of. Think of those SMS apps like SMS services people are willing to pay for. The easiest right now in iYam.mobi are one-way SMS type services. For example, want to be notified by SMS every time you receive an email ? There’s an app for that. Want to be notified by SMS everytime your favorite team or soccer player scores a goal ? There’s an app for that. Want to receive a bible verse every morning ? There’s an app for that. Want to be nofitifed about hot job offers on Kerawa.com ? There’s an app for that. And lots more.

I am particularly proud of the email sms notification app. Though the official name in the SMS Apps Store is “Instant eSMS”, I call it “The Poor Man’s Blackberry”.

What’s cool about SMS is that it works on any phone, even the low end phones we are accustomed with here in Africa.

Fritz: No kidding. Any phone ? Including my old Nokia 1100 ?

Fee: Any phone. Including your old Nokia 1100.

Fritz: Wow, that’s perfect.

Fee: Could you please repeat what you just said ?

Fritz: I said it’s perfect.

Fee: Nice. That’s the reaction I wanted from you. Did you know the name of my new company is FeePerfect ?

Fritz: FeePerfect, huh ? So tell me, Fee, how many employees do you have at FeePerfect.

Fee: Can we skip that question?

Fritz: No, we can’t.

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Fee: Let’s say I cannot even employ myself, yet.

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Fritz: That does not make sense.

Fee: I warned you to skip that question, didn’t I ?

Fritz: Another question then. You are telling me this SMS Apps Store is basically a set of SMS services people are willing to pay for. Cool, I get the concept. Except the payment part. How do people pay for the service ?

Fee: In order to be flexible with our pricing of individual SMS apps, and to cater for the individual currencies in the various countries we are targeting, we have introduced the concept of virtual credits into iYam. These are called “iYam credits”. Basically, you are billed in iYam credits every time you consume each of these SMS apps. We use the prepaid model. That’s what most mobile consumers are familiar with here. As such, people buy iYam credits in advance to refill their account balances. Strategies used to actually pay for these iYam credits may be very diverse. We are still working on that.

Fee: Cool. Really cool. But then, I see a serious flaw.

Fee: What flaw ?

Fritz: You’re just a man, Fee. Even if you had, say a dozen employees, you wouldn’t be able to produce enough of these SMS services that people want. How do you cater for local content ? How do third party developers integrate into the platform ?

Fee: I think that problem has been solved in the iYam apps store. I allow anyone to create his/her own app in the SMS Apps Store. We actually have three category of apps end users can create. Daily SMS apps, Weekly SMS apps and “As It happens” SMS apps. All of these have user interface elements that permit end users to fill in content within iYam. All these app categories equally benefit from APIs that permit third party developers to input data into their apps without being on iYam.mobi.

Fritz: No way. You mean I can actually , for example, create a local SMS news service for my neighbourhood right now ?

Fee: Exactly. and many other type of SMS services. Want to see how the new iYam.mobi looks like ?

Fritz: Yes, I would love to. You’re already getting me excited.

Fee:
Here is how the homepage looks like.

Fee:
And here is how the dashboard looks like.

Fee: You see that search box on the top right ?
Fritz: Yes I see it.
Fee: You can use that search box to find the contact information of any registered iYam user. It works a bit differently from the prototype version of iYam introduced earlier. In this new implementation, when you obtain the contact information of a user, it gets stored automatically into your phone’s address book. It works just like magic ! This limits the amount of phone keyboard typing you’ll have to do to find and store a user’s phone number. I am very proud of this new implementation of the mobile phone book part of iYam.

Fritz: Nice. Very Nice. And how does the SMS Apps Store look like ?
Fee : Here is how the SMS Apps Store looks like

Fritz: Wow. This is beautiful. These are all very beautiful.

Fee: You think so ? Thanks.

Fritz: That was actually sarcasm (smiles)

Fee: You’re kidding me, right ?

Fritz: Yeah kidding. They are actually very beautiful. Are these just static images or does the new iYam actually work ? Because it can be beautiful and all, but if it doesn’t work, then it’s just pure vapourware.

Fee: This is not vaporware. It actually works.These screenshots are from a live instance of iYam.mobi, though not yet released to the public.

Fritz: Really ? Seems like everything is ready then. Why haven’t you yet launched ?

Fee: The reason I haven’t yet launched is quite simple. I haven’t yet written an acceptable “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy” for iYam.mobi

Fritz: Who cares. Most “normal” people never read that. Who cares what is written there ?

Fee: I care. Remember, I happen to be a perfectionist.

Fritz: Nothing’s perfect.

Fee: Though a fact, that wouldn’t stop me from aiming for perfectionism.

Fritz: I think I’ve pretty much grasped a good global view of iYam.mobi. It has a mobile phone book, and an SMS Apps Store. I would say it looks interesting. I still have other questions though. What’s the business model ? Is the end user free from abuse of the system ? What do third party “sms app creators” gain from using your platform ? What type of SMS apps do you already have in your arsenal. I also heard you received seed capital for your project from “Limbe Labs”? How do other aspiring Cameroonian/African entrepreneurs get such funding ?

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Fee: You know what ? We could answer these interesting questions some other time. The interview has already taken so much time now, and I’ve got lots of bugs to fix before deadline. The next time you and I meet, you could play the roles of a potential investor, or concerned user or even a third party developer. And I will play myself, as usual, trying hard to answer your questions.

Fritz: Sounds like a good deal to me.

Fee: It’s a deal.

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Fee: Hey Fritz, could you please do me one last favour.

Fritz: Yeah sure, what’s it?

Fee: When publishing this, could you please avoid sensational titles like “Africa’s answer to Twitter”,or “Google killer” or “The Tech Samourai from Cameroon”, or “Apple beware, there’s a new sheriff in town”. None of these are true. Will you restrain yourself for me ? I’ll very much appreciate that.

Fritz: Damn. Damn. Damn. Ok, I’ll restrain myself. I totally understand. Don’t forget our next rendez-vous. I’m looking forward to it.