South African payment app Yappo will be launching three campaigns on selected university campuses in Cape Town and surrounding areas from next week.
HumanIPO reported earlier this year on the launch of Yappo, the first South African payment mobile app.
The first campaign, called #freelunch, will enable Yappo users to purchase lunch vouchers from selected stores with a click or touch, skipping credit card transactions or cash payments.
Students can redeem lunch from franchises such as Vida e Caffè, Kauai and St. Elmo’s among others, with an order limit of 20 meals per day.
‘Freelunchers’ will also be able to share buys on Facebook or hashtag deals on Twitter via #freelunch.
Six stores’ payment systems, also including supermarkets Checkers and Pick n Pay, have been activated to accept Yappo payments since Friday, April 19.
Following the #freelunch campaign from April 28 to May 3, a pop-up market will be available from May 6 to 10 on campus where six food enterprises will sell meals through the free app.
AppWeek, the third campaign, will showcase all student apps and the corporates active in this space.
Campuses targeted for the student-focused campaign are Stellenbosch University (SU), the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Western Cape (UWC) and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
According to Stuart Minnaar, founder of Yappo, the app is currently most popular on the SU and UCT campuses.
“There is this kind of ‘I am a cool kid with a smartphone’ [vibe],” he explained, saying more students are app-wise on the campuses where smartphones are more widely used.
Operating through wiCode technology, the app allows students to transact with preloaded credit at all stores in partnership with Yappo. This provides an alternative to cash or card payments.
The same technology by wiGroup also is used by social chat app Mxit’s staff members.
Minnaar confirmed its growing success as the business aims for 30,000 users by June 2013 to secure second phase investment.
With a previous activation campaign at Kauai, airtime purchases were made to the value of ZAR500 (US$58.83) through Yappo.
