Bae: A Dating App For Black Singles

How do you feel about online dating services or mobile dating apps? I don't think I'm exactly cool with the idea of looking for a relationship or love online or on a mobile device (Except you dey find another tin).
I mean don't get me wrong, but I just feel for a relationship to begin or even be given a chance, one should get to see and observe such a person quite closely, rather than just trying to meet someone for the first time, you met on your mobile. Hey! I'm just saying. I guess that makes me old fashioned. Haha!

Anyways, there's a new online mobile dating app, not so new per say, but it's targeted at Black folks. It's called 'Bae'. You know the popular acronym right? "Before Anyone Else". Yep! It is what it is.
Bae is a mobile dating app created by Jordan Kunzika, Brian Gerrard and Justin Gerrard. All black youngsters, who hope to make online dating better for Blacks. 

The app was launched in April of 2015 and has reached well over 150,000 downloads on the App Store. Incredible! Now here's the strategy that Bae's founders employed, in building their user base to up to 17000 downloads within the first few weeks of the  launch. They hosted an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) tour which consisted of parties and mixers where people who matched on Bae could meet in person. All attendees had to have Bae downloaded to participate. Awesome strategy if you ask me. First, the platform is targeted at Blacks all over the world. Then the app went on a University tour. That's New. Best strategy to get users, young and willing and searching. 

But more than just a strategy for a high user base, is the fact that the app is solving dating issues faced by Blacks in the United States and other countries. In the US, Black online users face apparent bias, as Black men and women are sometimes penalized when users rated their matches on dating apps. So this solves that issue. 

Kunzika, CTO of Bae and senior at Dartmouth College, a Google Generation Scholar who has internships with Microsoft and Intel, turned down Microsoft and Google to build the Bae app. Now that's epic! I mean come on it's Google and Microsoft we're talking about here. Who would pass up such an opportunity? Jordan Kunzika, That's Who. I must say this Angolan-American's got 'guts'. Or is it Vision? I say 'Both'. Often being the only Black person in his computer science classes, he says "I quickly realized that it was up to me to either let this negatively affect me, or let it motivate me to be successful, so that people who come after me will have role models who look like them". 

I'm inspired, I must say because he's looking at the future and how to make an impact positively in the lives of Blacks all around the world. That's both Daring  and Visionary. And he is just in his Twenties. "I was honored to get full-time offers from Google and Microsoft before even turning 21,but I knew that I could serve a higher calling to represent a paradigm shift in what a tech entrepreneur could look like" he says. 

Kunzika met his co-founders, Justin and Brian Gerrard in his junior year and joined the team after they pitched Bae to him. 

Bae has reached users all over the world and has even been listed as a Top 50 Life-style app in twenty African and Caribbean countries. Bae is different because of its proprietary algorithm which was built by Kunzika. What users like most about Bae is the quality of matches and the fact that it helps you find those you're interested in, matches from your secondary school, stuff like that. The founders' goal is for Bae to become the best Black dating app in the US and across the African diaspora. Now that's a Dream. I'm still not a fan of online dating, but I'm just prouda them. Reping Blacks and the African Continent. ✊ #Inspired. 

Exclusive Launches!

Here are some recent launches by different companies in Nigeria and beyond,starting with Uber.
You know Uber yeah! Taxi hailing service? Right. You should know also that it has officially launched in Nigeria's Federal capital city, Abuja. Lagos in early January, hit over a billion trips since its inception in 2014, and one wondered when the capital city would get her fair share of the "launch pie."

Now it's finally here. The launch was officially announced on the 23rd of March, making Abuja the eleventh African city that Uber launched after Mombasa Kenya. This also made Abuja the 400th city (I think) in the world, Uber launched. The app offered users in Abuja 6 days of free rides.
Uber also partnered with some Abuja-based firms to attract users. As a way of celebrating their city, the first riders (talking about the partners) were out and about, and had special treats in store for all Abuja Uber riders.

Among these were Charles Okpaleke; CEO and co-founder of the Play Entertainment Network, Adama Ndimi; a passionate humanitarian and one of Northern Nigeria's most influential taste makers, Restaurateur and culture promoter, Sal Gbaja of Salamander Cape. There was also celebrity wedding and lifestyle photographer, George Okoro, and owner of women's fashion house, Dzyn, Ogwa Iweze and they all had some interesting discounts for Uber riders. All that was needed were Uber receipts or scan codes to get discounts.

Sliide launched officially in Nigeria last month and already has over 5000 downloads on the Google Play Store.
It's a new startup that wants to lower the cost of mobile broadband for Nigerians. With high cost of Internet access, and growing social network presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the rest of them, it is only needful to find new and better ways to help Nigerians pay for Internet access.

Android users can earn NGN100 free airtime just by downloading the Sliide Airtime app from the Google Play Store, and more airtime every month for keeping Slide Airtime on the phone.
Also, users can earn an extra NGN100 for every friend they introduce to Sliide Airtime, and their friends will also earn NGN100 each. The service can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or www.sliideairtime.ng.

South African born Corbyn Munnik, is the CEO and co-founder, Sliide Airtime. Corbyn who had his childhood in Botswana, said the service is non-intrusive. People get free airtime and are also sent contest which will be interesting and useful. The company is focused on Nigeria for now but intends to expand into South Africa, Ghana and Kenya later.

And finally, Ford is going head-on with Uber, with its FordPass. FordPass, a mobile app, is available to both customers and non-customers of Ford. It provides live chat assistance and navigation, remote starting, locking and unlocking, vehicle health information, finding and paying for parking. It is also testing sharing and borrowing of cars via the app. This was during the keynote address by President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields. He suggested that FordPass could do for the car industry what the iTunes did for the music industry.

The app has been introduced in the UK and Germany and will formally launch this month. (Don't know if it has launched already).

Uber's "Family Profiles" Feature Lets You Pay For The Rides Of Others

A quick history on the Uber company. I'm sure you know about Uber and what it does, or must have heard about it, or know someone that knows someone that uses the Uber service. Well, it's a multinational online transport network company based in San Francisco, CA, which develops markets and operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request which is then routed to Uber drivers who use their own cars.
(This is me quoting wiki-you-know-who) *winks *.

The company was founded in March of 2009 by Travis kalanick and Garrett Camp with Travis kalanick as the CEO and has since grown to be a worldwide brand offering consumers like you and I, car hiring and private taxi services through Uber drivers around you and offering interested car owners, an opportunity to run their own taxi or car hire services.
Basically, it works like a dispatch service and sends the nearest Uber driver to your location. Easy Peazy, Lemon Squeezy!

Uber recently released Instant Pay - a pilot program - that allows its drivers to immediately access cash earned, using a third-party mobile banking service called Gobank. It's only available in some cities for a start.
Now, onto its Family Profiles feature. The on-demand car service announced a few days ago, its new feature called Family Profiles which is designed to make it easier for its customers to pay for the rides of their friends and family. A really good idea as this was one of Uber's most frequently requested features by its users. This feature is made available for users in the Atlanta, Phoenix and Dallas markets before going to other areas.

This means that you can now pay for the rides of a loved one like your children going home from school while you're at work, a stranded friend, or a co-worker or employee running errands, from wherever you are, right from the comfort of your own phone.
Just like it's been said "Family always comes first" and "hey! What are friends for if not for inconveniences". You're Welcome! 😁

This option of course, isn't only for members of your family, but you can also choose to help someone in need who is added to your group in the app. This is nice, although there is a need for trust in this as you bill trips taken by others to your payment card, and so you need to add people who are part of a somewhat trusted circle.
You select contacts to join your family profile (name and mobile number) and then such persons will be able to request rides from their own phones using the Family Profile feature as the method of payment. All they have to do is to accept the email invitation sent to them to get started. You as the payer, whose payment card is on file and is associated with the profile, will receive ride receipts for the persons added to use the Family Profiles payment option.
It allows up to 10 riders to share the payment method.

There is no ETA for the Family Profiles feature to reach other Uber markets but they intend to make it a standard feature on the app.
Uber is available in 58 countries and in 400 cities, worldwide, of course including Abuja and Lagos in Nigeria with Abuja being the most recent launch city.

The Uber experience is one I haven't had an opportunity of having but will let you know when I do. I'll have you know however, that I know someone who has had the experience. So I guess that puts me in the category of those who have heard about it and know someone that knows someone who uses the service. Lol!
All the same, I'm getting me the Uber mobile app and I think that counts.
So, yes, I am a "Uberer" by association. Ha!

Do You Know About Flipagram's New Features?

As you may already know, in today's world, communication is very key to survival and staying relevant. Even in relationships, especially in relationships, and that applies to the Tech World too. More and more apps are adding features like messaging to keep their users locked in for longer and wanting more. Apps like Flipagram - an app that lets you merge pictures and video snippets with music to create your own beautiful stories - have added a direct messaging feature to make your creations more fun and interactive. It allows you to send your Flips through to specific friends or group of friends without leaving the app. Whew! Finally! It's something that used to be an "ish", where you had to leave the Flipagram app in order to send Flips to people directly. Not anymore! The DM (direct messaging) feature now has a prominent place directly to the right of the + at the bottom of the screen that you press to create a new Flip. It replaced the music button which now appears in the explore section. You find friends to message by following them and them following you back in the app. The messaging interface will appear on a different screen where you can exchange messages as well as Flips with friends. The app has over 40 million registered users and has consistently hovered in the top 10 photo and video apps in the key US Market. Messaging is in many ways the killer app on mobile at the moment with apps like WhatsApp and Messenger (both owned by Facebook) now used by billions of consumers. Just so you know, Farhad Mohit is the co-founder and CEO of Flipagram. The company has been around since 2013. I'm pretty sure some people still don't know about Flipagram and what it does... (look who's talking, *me* I only got to know about it in 2015). Well, it helps you stitch photos and video pieces into a slideshow that can be shared on internet platforms like Facebook or Twitter or Instagram... (like I haven't said that already) which brings us to another interesting feature to come to Flipagram, or more like a transition of the app from an editing app to a social network. A really bold step right? It says it wants to keep those precious moments inside its own app so that users will follow and like and share them with one another inside Flipagram just like it's done on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Although the usual progression is from starting with the network to adding tools, Flipagram seems to be transitioning from a tool app to a social company. Mohit when asked in an interview about this reverse-order of progression had this to say (this has been edited for clarity and size) "The question you have to ask yourself as a starting company is how are you going to get a lot of users interested in your product? The answer for us and for some others was to make it as simple as possible with enough utility" he said "I actually think there are a lot of examples of folks that started out as a utility or tool and then kind of expanded that out into more of a network. Instagram is a good example of one of such. It really just started out making your photos prettier for Facebook" Mohit founded and sold Shopzilla and Bizrate for over $500 million as far back as 10 years ago. An enterprenuer Indeed! Despite the fact that lots of people still do not use or know what Flipagram is all about, it's really here to stay. What's not to love about this company. With Direct Messaging feature and the app's supposed transition into a social network platform, I say these guys are not thinking of bowing out anytime soon. And neither are we. One more reason why we love Life In A Jet Age. Happy Flipagramming! Adios!!!