Mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria now have a chance to have their bills lowered, thanks to Sliide Airtime which announced at its launch in Africa’s largest economy, that its airtime service provides users with a new and innovative way to access content from their mobiles and simultaneously earn free airtime.
According to Sliide Airtime, Nigerian users can download the Android app from the Google Play Store or directly from its website, sliideairtime.ng from March. After entering information about their age and interests (for example: business, celebrity, football, style, music), users will receive personalised content when unlocking their phone, including news and stories handpicked from media sources both in and beyond Nigeria, and updated 24/7/365. They will also see a selection of branded content delivered through a partnership with Twinpine, the largest mobile advertising network in Africa.
Sliide Airtime users will receive free airtime simply by having the app on their phone. Additional airtime can be earned by completing in-app offers and, for a limited time, users will be able to earn 100N for every friend they sign up. Sliide Airtime users simply give their friends their unique promotional code (given to each person upon registration), and they will both earn 100N when the friend joins.
Sliide Airtime’s founder and CEO Corbyn Munnik who was born in South Africa and grew up in Botswana where his family still lives, said:
“Sliide Airtime is a new and innovative way of funding mobile Internet access in countries where data charges are high. In Nigeria it will help overcome the problem of expensive data and gives advertisers a smart new way of targeting and reaching consumers with customised content.”
Sliide Airtime also enables mobile operators to integrate the app within new devices and establish their own content streams, thus providing a new mobile advertising revenue stream.
Adrian Wood, the former CEO of MTN Nigeria, who is on the board of Sliide Airtime, said:
“Accessing the internet from a mobile device is expensive for many Nigerians. The Sliide Airtime app provides them with a straightforward way to subsidise their surfing and get access to content that they not only find useful, but is carefully targeted and non-intrusive.”
Prior to the Nigerian launch, the Sliide Airtime App has been extensively tested in the UK where the company received financial backing from a number of organisations including UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) and Draper Dark Flow (a Silicon Valley based VC fund for African startups) established by Tim Draper whose venture successes include Skype, Baidu, and Hotmail.
Sliide Airtime expects to expand into South Africa, Ghana and Kenya later in the year.