Gigwapi, launched just a month ago, is the latest event listing startup in Kenya with plans to disrupt the event listing industry.
The online platform for fun things offers listing services for events, hangout joints, nightlife and other fun activities like rugby or football matches, kids and family activities over the week or weekend.
Gigwapi stands for Gig and Wapi is Swahili for where, meaning where the gig at in full. Presently incubated at the Nailab, Gigwapi.com was founded by Charles Kinyanjui as CEO, Erick Waithaka, the operations lead and Christine Miricho the head of marketing. They are all recent graduates of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
TechMoran caught up with the team is here is what they are up to.
What inspired you?
The idea was conceived while we were still in campus and we were looking for happy hours specials (smiles). We realized that there is no central place where people can go to check out what’s happening, where and at what cost and that is where it all started and thus we started a Facebook and Twitter pages named HappyHourKenyain April 2012 which we later changed to Gigwapi after securing incubation at the Nailab.
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Any testimonies?
This is some of the feedback we are getting via email and verbally from our users.
“Hi, I checked out your web page, great concept and I believe it’s going to hit the market and take the events platform by storm.” said Mathew, a spoken word/poetry artist from PUMZi-kenya.
“Gigwapi is a great place to find out what’s happening where and what events are happening close to you. I have used it twice and both times I was able to find what I was looking for. The site simple to navigate and looks great. I’m officially a fan.” Wilson Kageni(@the_kageni_mind) a techprenuer.
“It’s interesting to know that now I can pull out my phone and get to know where I can find a karaoke event happening.” Sam Gichuru, Director at the Nailab.
How does it work?
The website works by listing all the events happening based on category, date and price. The publishing of the events is done by us after we have gathered the relevant details and a user can add their events directly via a link at the top.
The features/categories
When you go to the home page, there is tab that shows all the events that are happening on that specific day. The next tab shows all the upcoming events for an entire week and the last tab shows the popular events. When one wants to view an event based on a certain category such as nightlife, sports or arts there is a navigation bar which is used to navigate through the various categories.
When a user wants to send their events to us for publishing, there is a link at the top where they only need to give us a few details then we publish their event.
A user can also search for specific events or places on the search bar by typing the event name, choosing the date or typing the place.
Our social media pages are Gigwapi for Facebook and @gigwapi for Twitter.
How many users so far?
The user base is growing day by day but we are still at the early stages where people are just getting to know our product; however we have about 2,000 page views in the last 3 weeks with a 65% of returning users to the site. With a proper marketing we expect to hit the 10,000 mark monthly by the end of April.
Business model?
We are having free listing for now but we plan to have a premium charge for added services offered, and advertisements.
Any competition?
There are several competitors like Nairobinow, Ticketsasa, Eventbrite but the main one is KenyaBuzz who have dominated the market for some time now. Though they are several, their concentration is on different sections of the market.
How unique are you from them?
We want to be a place where a user can get a plan for the weekend or any day of the week by encompassing all kind of happenings big or small whenever they are. Therefore we cover daily events such as karaoke’s and theme nights since the other competitors mainly concentrate on the big events.
Over and above listing we help event organizers reach their target market and make ticket sales where it applies.
Any funding yet?
We currently haven’t received any funding yet. However, we are open to any investment to help us scale the business into major towns and improve our products. We appreciate support and mentoring from Nailab and Sam Gichuru, the Nailab director.
Challenges?
Being new in the market we are facing a few challenges like the lack of funds to scale the company to the point where we want it to be and funds for our marketing plans.
Any upcoming developments?
Yes, we have just launched our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and we are already working on the next iteration with more features and better experience. An android app is also cooking and might be ready by September this year.
Image Credit:Facebook.com/Gigwapi
