Mara Online to Connect Africa Using Social Portals

RMN Digital | May 19, 2013 | Middle East and Africa, Regions, Social, Social Media, Social Tech | No Comments

Mara Online offers professional, personal and social tools for communicating, networking, and collaborating across borders.

The launch of Mara Online was announced Saturday by Ashish J Thakkar, founder and CEO of Mara Group and Mara Foundation. The vision of this new online and mobile platform is to become the first most inspirational choice for connecting African youth across the continent and to the world, says the company. How?

Mara Online is an online and mobile eco-system allowing users to communicate, interact and collaborate with each other via social portals, while building communities that are centered around common interests and information needs.

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The company says Mara Online is a convergence of web and mobile technology that creates user-driven experiences spanning from educational tools for entrepreneurs to highly interactive mobile applications that provide connectivity to people across the globe.

“With the expansion of the African mobile and internet markets, we strive to develop quality services and tools that will empower and inspire African users. By engaging with our African youth, our goal is to support them in creating an identity in the world of technology, enabling them to innovate, share and collaborate across borders,” said Thakkar.

Throughout this year, Mara Online will launch its own mobile applications. The first three applications are communication focused, with the objective to create new opportunities for African youth:

MaraConnect – A free mobile VoIP, allowing smartphone and tablet users across Africa to call and text for free, both domestically and internationally. As of today, this application is available in App Stores and on Google Play.

MaraMessenger – An instant messaging platform facilitating real time communication via mobile and offers quick transmission of text-based messages.

BuzzMe – African social media network, providing a new way for youth to meet and network across the continent and globally, via the Internet and on mobile. BuzzMe will be interlinked with the other applications and allow members to chat online using MaraMessenger and via VOIP on MaraConnect.

According to the company, the idea behind Mara Online started off last year when Mara created Mara Mentor; an online mentoring platform to support young entrepreneurs.