Scrobber is a new virtual pinboard essential for planning weddings, decorating homes, and sharing recipes. It can also function as an online catalogue for merchandise, adds the developers.
Antony Gitonga, 19, and Gatwiri Murithi, 28, founded Scrobber. The two told HumanIPO Scrobber allows users to organize and share the “beautiful things” they find on the Web as users can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things.
Gitonga says the need to create local content was the primary motivator behind the app.
“While working in Kibera, Nairobi we found that use of words to simply describe the situation on the ground was not enough. Pictures and videos told louder, clearer and more vivid stories than our words ever could.
“With the aim of building empathy and a closer connection, I came up with the concept of using the net to share photos and videos to allow people to share their lives and allow each other to ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” Gitonga said.
The founders say they did not want to come up with another Pinterest or any other social network. Rather, they wanted an emphasis on local content.
The site aims to increase local content by providing a locally developed networking system. Primarily, the available social networks provide people with connections using words, which vary depending on one’s language.
With pictures and videos, the barrier created by the differences in languages is removed allowing interactions between people without having to learn a new language. The platform also provides access to global markets with its e-commerce component where users can post photos and prices of their products.
Gitonga says anyone can use the site even when on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest. Sellers too can take advantage of their local ‘e-bay’ option. Bloggers can without words, also share their point of view in a creative and simple way using event photos.
The two are at the moment working on ‘API’ to allow other developers and site owners publish their content directly to Scrobber such as real time e-commerce sales and video games using our users’ information.
“We both have skills that we thought are yet to be fully utilized. Entrepreneurship allows us to grow our abilities, and earn income from talents that would otherwise remain latent in an 8 to 5 job,” Gitonga said.
Within the first 4 days into operation, Scrobber has 30 users, 1,500 hits and just about 800 unique visits.
They plan to spread across the continent later as their main focus at the moment is to get as many users as possible.
