Winjit Technologies: Digital Gateways Sans Internet

It is an internet connected world; yet, many pockets in developing countries either have limited access to internet or it is expensive. “Our focus is on the developing world and emerging economies where people have mobile devices, however internet access is limited or unstable; the product mix we have provides easy accessible digital content, including music, games, apps and films—without internet!” says Abhijit Junagade, Co-Founder, Winjit Technologies.

The digital gateway product App Adda, from Winjit Technologies enables content to be downloaded or streamed to mobile devices without connecting to the internet. “We have aggregators right from every music company, games from third party game developers, and film content licensed from content owners. These will be distributed through our platform in places where internet connectivity is a problem, or bandwidth is expensive or where people don’t want to pay via their credit card,” adds Junagade.

This Revolutionary internet free technology facilitates users to download heavy games and documents at ease without incurring data charges

In an emerging market scenario, the storekeeper will try to make the user download apps when he is buying a phone. The content downloaded could be pirated, leading to revenue loss for the content creator. With App Adda, content is purchased via vouchers sold at App Adda enabled locations, such as shops, restaurants, hotels, or public transports. These vouchers can be redeemed to buy licensed content.

All the stakeholders are connected via an offline mechanism to download content. Apart from being a source of digital content, the product enables app developers, publishers and other content providers to share and sell their products without connectivity barriers—“it’s like a fastest portable app store,” says Junagade. The biggest challenge addressed by App Adda is in the mode of payment—targeting the audience in developing markets who prefer to pay by cash.

The end user can download content at the retail outlet, or when connected to the WiFi device. To update the content, the box placed with the retailer is connected at the back-end to the cloud. The in-house algorithm compresses data to ensure a very small footprint. Micro-caching facility allows the user to have faster downloads of heavy games and documents at ease without incurring data charges. The apps cannot be shared and encryption with keys on the profiles makes it secure. “The user is prompted to install the app and it gets installed like any other app. The built-in coupon mechanism supports offline monetization as well. Appadda also offers white labeling facility,” says Junagade.

Expanding into emerging markets, Winjit Technologies is rolling out App Adda in South Africa, where one of the company’s clients who are into taxi financing, wants to deploy this in taxis called SA Taxi. As a pilot project, these hotspots are being placed in around 100 taxis allowing people to download and pay cash to the taxi driver for the coupons. “Our experience has been exciting working with Winjit as they have been instrumental in bringing around a rapid improvement in our business process through their technology products and solutions,” said Neil Dove, Managing Director, SA Taxi Finance.

Winjit Technologies, known for developing conventional enterprise software systems to modern-day mobile apps for businesses as well as end consumers, is betting high on its technology. With the overwhelming reception at Mobile World Congress 2014, App Adda, is on its journey forward—helping connect to the next billion without the internet.