With Slide, Pakistan gets its first lockscreen app

Photo credit: Japanexperterna.se

Lockscreen apps, which entice users to click on ads or content with the promise of free top ups are hugely successful across Asia. The likes of Popslide and Candy boast hundreds of thousands of users and have raised millions in funding. After all, smartphones aren’t smart just by themselves. Their magic elixir is mobile internet. And free internet, somehow, just works better than the paid version.

The first such app to hit Pakistani smartphone screens is Slide. It works differently from other popular apps in the region because users aren’t subjected to mindless advertising alone. Slide allows them to earn money simply by clicking on the content they like.

Personally, I feel that’s great for ensuring user stickiness. Bombarding someone with adverts doesn’t ensure retention and loyalty, even if it is teamed with cash rewards.

On Slide, users can sign up either by creating their own accounts, or via social logins. Once their account is verified, they proceed to identify content categories which tickle their fancy. These include current affairs, sports, technology, entertainment, movies, business, fashion, and travel.

The app is borderline intrusive and not for everyone, but hey, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. What I liked most about it was the fact that it kept pushing some great content – I read articles from Gizmodo, Business Insider, even 9GAG. And I felt there was some intuitive UI – after a few days of content consumption, the app figured out what kinds of articles I was most interested in, and pushed those regularly.

Junaid Malik, founder of Slide, tells Tech in Asia he engineered the product to help users uncover interesting content whilst also helping them earn money in the process. As content is scattered widely across the internet, users often land on different portals to find information they seek on a daily basis. Slide helps consolidate that under one roof. Furthermore, he didn’t want to build an app that had to compete on a phone’s homescreen – where it would probably have met with some serious competition from heavyweights such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Hence the lockscreen app.

“I felt the model could be replicated in Pakistan after the success it’s gotten in countries like Japan and South Korea […] there are about 18-20 million Android smartphone users here so I thought we could go ahead and play with that,” adds Junaid.

Be your own boss

Junaid, who comes from a digital advertising background, says he had no qualms about quitting his job to start his own venture. His core focus is on users and ensuring that they remain happy.

“I know brands have money to spend, and they do so simply by throwing ads on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Users don’t benefit much, which is why I integrated the app with a reward program. The more content you consume, the more points you’re able to accumulate. On average, users can make about 200 rupees (US$2) every month,” he explains.

Slide launched approximately six weeks ago, and Junaid says they have more than 100,000 users to date. 88 percent of those are active daily. His target is to reach a million users within a year.