How would you fancy an opportunity to make money from a social media platform just by passively using it to message? Or the prospects of creating content, trading in digital collectibles and making your financial transactions, then depositing in a wallet; all in a single platform?

Perhaps this may seem like a long shot to achieve, but with the power of Web3, a UK-based startup is making all these a reality, and most specially, for Africa.

Founded in 2022, Maringo is an app that deploys the power of Web3 to incorporate social media, e-commerce and fintech functionalities, in one platform, bringing all these services to a user in one go.

Through it, you can connect with people, follow them, message them, configure calls, and even voice chat with your audience, showcase your creativity, and also make financial transactions, and in turn earn rewards. A user does not need to quit or exit the platform to interchangeably perform any of these functionalities.

Next-Gen Social Ecosystem for Africa

The platform, whose beta version hopefully, according to its founder, goes live by the end of the month, currently works, albeit with limited functioning, through its early access app, as it undergoes more development to better it. It has between 15,000 and 16,000 people signed up for its early access.

“Maringo is, essentially, a next generation social ecosystem that integrates and combines traditional social media features, fintech, and e-commerce capabilities,” the platform’s founder and CEO, Louis Akaatenger, told NODO News in an interview. “We’re building the foremost digital ecosystem, where users can take full control of their social experience. Whether you are an individual, business, or community, the platform gives you the power to realize value, generate wealth, and cultivate your audience.”

His passion for technology comes from his experience in Africa, from different perspectives. “Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are big tech hubs,” he says. “I think each of those regions had their own defining moments for me. Even the name of the company, Maringo, is actually a Swahili word which means ‘Pride’.”

Akaatenger — who describes himself as a massive technology enthusiast, strong pioneer, and believer in the development and progression of the transportation, finance and energy sectors in Africa — notes that Maringo is also about connecting with people and messaging. In the process, they earn money.

“With Maringo, you can get paid. A big part of why we’re building the platform is about the rewards and earnings as users can get paid for their creativity. Moreover, a driving mechanism for many of our technologies is token and tokenization,” Akaatenger says. “We also have Maringo moments, which is a place to share, share your story; it is the story equivalent for Maringo where you can share the highlights of your day.”

Earning Money on Digital Marketplace

Its e-commerce capabilities and a marketplace provide an opportunity for users to create, sell, and trade in digital collectibles, subscription content, and NFTs on their marketplaces. These integrate fintech capabilities, where users can pay and be paid using its in-app wallet.

Akaatenger says that Maringo has six different mechanisms through which users can earn money.

It has its native rewarding mechanism through which it strives to democratize social media. Being a social platform, Maringo is definitely going to make money from advertising and what it does is to redistribute that money. Half of that money is then repaid to the users.

“Its quite like, by just passively using our platform you can be rewarded passively. We have a mechanism in which 60% of whatever we earn as a company from ads, the revenue goes back and is distributed to the users,” he explains. “Similarly, users have the ability to license their own data to us -since everyone owns their own data in Maringo- and this could then earn them some more money.”

The platform also has both local and blockchain minting mechanisms through which users can mint; all which could earn them money passively.

He also notes that every positive interaction on a user’s post earns some tokens. “In this case, from a positive interaction you get on your post, you earn a bit more money,” he says. “And then there’s the subscriber-only content, and the marketplace where you can sell digital assets. Essentially, there are many ways that a user can leverage to monetize our platform.”

Solving Real Problems

Maringo, he reiterates, tries to solve a lot of issues. Such include issues of data privacy, security, lack of transparency, lack of control, ownership over users social experience and compensation challenges.

Users, he notes, add to the earnings of the social media platforms on the basis of their data. This is because these social platforms harvest users’ data, and sell it. Yet the social media users are never compensated for this data.

The other issue is that of censorship and biasness, he said. “Some social media platforms work based off the agenda of whoever owns, runs or sponsors it. This takes away the democratization,” said Akaatenger. “If a user doesn’t fit within the agenda of the owners of the platform, most of the time they get censored. And since social media is a very influential tool, it can be detrimental to these users.”

Many users, he says, currently prefer products that focus on their interests rather than the interests of their owners. Many also now prefer super-apps, which basically make their work a lot easier.

These factors would make Maringo a preferred app, according to Akaatenger, as he notes that the platform will be first launched in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and the UK, before it spreads to other neighboring countries.

-Edited by Shigeru Sato