The was once a WhatsApp service called Duta that shut up shop on WhatsApp in late 2019. This service was particularly useful because you could get sports news and many other updates through it. When it went away it left a void in the market that needed filling and up stepped Hotbox which has been going from strength to strength and now has 300K users.
Hotbox allows you to do much the same as Duta (news & sports updates) with a few additions as well as:
- Eduzone where you can get access to educational resources and past papers
- A Marketplace for all sorts of goods and services
- Job Vacancies
- Emergency short codes
The last Hotbox milestone we reported on was in September, when the WhatsApp chatbot had just gone over 100K users. And it isn’t too surprising to see them doing this well. As we have said here ad nauseam, WhatsApp is the internet in Zimbabwe.
Most people’s first exposure to internet services is through WhatsApp because general data bundles are very expensive. A service like Hotbox makes it so that you can have access to a number of “wider internet services” in a chat.
And with the pandemic still with us and more people going online. I doubt it’ll be too long before we hear that Hotbox has added a couple more hundred thousand users to the 300K it currently has.
You can check out Hotbox for yourself on WhatsApp with the number +263776656972
You should check also out:
- Hotbox Is A New WhatsApp Bot Aiming To Replace Duta & Offers A Lot More
- Local WhatsApp chatbot Hotbox reaches 100k users
- Innovative clinic uses WhatsApp chatbot to serve and screen patients
- What effect could Facebook, WhatsApp & Sasai have on Zim elections?
- Technikari Ep4: Why doesn’t Zim have it’s own WhatsApp?, the best USD prepaid card & best local online store
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18 comments
Interesting ,
I personally think WhatsApp only data is killing innovation, they are a lot of productivity tools out there. The fact that the majority has to be cornered into using one platform is not good. The WhatsApp bots are good but there are platforms like Telegram that had bots 5 years ago with open APIs that anyone can start using for free. There is slack which is years ahead of Whatsapp. There is google lens and a lot of other cloud platforms that can help our country move forward. The internet is a right and should be available for all. everyone should have an equal opportunity to choose whichever platform they want at a low cost.
How do achieve that?
It’s a shame and bad thing that our MNO’s are extremely slow to adapt their product offerings to cater to the ever changing needs of people,(Why don’t they introduce a Zoom bundle for instance).Everyone is forced to use Whatsapp.Indeed for most people in Zim, their exposure to the Internet is ONLY THROUGH WHATSAPP.what a sad situation! !!
A welcome development. I’m waiting to purchase Telegram bundles from Econet and other MNOs as soon as they are rolled out.
Please could you make a follow up on Hotbox. Is Hotbox down or dead?
Its not working
Use hekaya sports bot for sports highlights. The number is +254758544601
How do you start using it
Try again, it’s now working
It is not working on my phone
Is this Hotbox Whatsapp bot still working. Its now more than 2 weeks down. Help
How do I use it
Does this do quizzes and other guess games?
What are the commands used to start using Hotbox
Help Hotbox is not responding me
it’s not replying
I want to be part of this i love it