Social media platform to promote African tourism launched in Uganda
Technology solutions firm Dei Technologies has announced the launch of “Dei Places” a social media platform aimed at promoting Africa as the best tourism destination in the world.
The platform was launched at a Press Conference held on Monday, December 4th at Hotel Africana, in the capital Kampala.
According to Dr. Paul Batambuze, the Business Development Manager for Dei Places, the platform focuses on individuals, organizations among other entities sharing information in pictures, videos and words about places.
Just like the already existent social media including Facebook, Twitter among others, Dei Places allows the user to sign up, create a profile, upload pictures, videos and add text as well.
It allows the user to create a custom place which they can add to the platform’s archives for people to locate and also has a live chat option.
Speaking at the press launch, Moses Matovu, the Product Manager said, although Dei Places will perform all the functions other social media platforms play, its major focus will be on helping people share information about different places in their own way.
“This platform is here to help people marketplaces. There are over a billion places across the globe worth visiting but people do not know about them. Dei Places is nowhere to help people market such places to the world,” said Matovu.
Asked about how they will handle subscribers who will want to use the system for other reasons, Matovu said their system will red flag anyone who posts information that is not related to destination marketing and that they have included bots to mitigate fake news.
Speaking to PC Tech Magazine at the sidelines of the Press Conference and commenting on the state of internet usage and appreciation of technology by Ugandans, Dr. Bamutaze noted that Dei Places is a product designed for not only Uganda but Africa and the world at large.
“The world has become too small for people to think only for their localities. At Dei Technologies, our focus is now global. We have therefore created a number of affiliations on many other products. Dei Places is our first product, but much more are on the way,” said Dr. Bamutaze.
He appreciated the fact that internet usage in Uganda has greatly increased citing a recent report by communications regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC)
“By June this year, Uganda had over 17.1millioninternet users according to UCC. This is a great increase compared to the same period last year, where internet usage stood at 16.8 million. We are therefore confident that many Ugandans will be able to share their places,” he added.
Uganda becomes the third country to use the platform world over and second in Africa, after South Africa. America was the first to test the platform.
Dr. Batambuze revealed that they are already in talks with China and are planning to launch there in a few months.
Dei Places was developed by a team of both African and American developers from Dei Technologies, a subsidiary of Dei Group international.
The company has developed a number of apps and other innovations most of which are already on the Ugandan market.
The most outstanding innovation from Dei Technologies was the anti-malarial drug delivertive which came from Uganda. They also run a fintech app which enables sending and receiving money.
