Sasai Adds 135 Services, It’s Now Like WeChat At Full Throttle

If you had opened Sasai two weeks ago you’d have been disappointed because there were just a couple of services on the platform. But yesterday Cassava Smartech unveiled many services that add up to 135 that are all now accessible in Sasai. From KFC to Alibaba to Spotify to DHL: these are just a few of 135 services that are now up and running on Sasai. Cassava Smartech’s CEO, Eddie Chibi said:

The SASAI App was developed to unleash the full power of smartphones – which is what most of our customers using the App will now be experiencing

The services can be accessed under the “Explore” tab. After tapping “Explore” will present you with 25 categories in which you can then find the preferred service you want to use.

Adding local services is one sure-fire way to entice Zimbabweans and other local folks in other African countries to use Sasai. However, my disappointment at the moment is that a majority of the services in Sasai are not local which doesn’t incentivise local folks to jump on board. For instance, under the Food category in Sasai, there’s only KFC, Nandos, McDonald, Debonairs. What about all those local food joints that are listed in Munch? Or Food outlets like Chicken inn, Mambos Chicken,Pizza hut etc? Also, for instance, under the News services tab, there’s BBC, CNN, Bloomberg and other international publications. What about putting Kwayedza, Herald, Daily news and other local media outlets?

It’s quite obvious that Sasai can only replicate the success of WeChat by including homegrown services on it’s platform- that is simply why WeChat is a integral platform for the Chinese. Only after having an ardent homegrown support will Sasai have a global reach even though that’s not what Cassava is aiming for – right now, all Cassava wants is Sasai to be “Africa’s digital marketplace platform”

The bait – How Sasai will fish for more users

With Sasai now like WeChat at full throttle, Cassava has come up with 2 growth hacking strategies to increase the uptake and usage of Sasai. The first strategy is awarding new Sasai users a Sasai bundle worth $20. As with Facebook or WhatsApp bundle, the Sasai bundle will be used entirely on Sasai. The promotion will run for 3 months.

The second strategy entails Econet giving away $100 Sasai Bundles to 10 000 users per week for 10 weeks. Better yet, “the 10-week promotion would culminate in a grand draw offering three new houses (situated in Ruwa and powered by solar energy) to the luck draw winners”.

Also read: Entrepreneur Says Econet (Cassava) Stole His Idea About Sasai, To Sue Next Week