Truecaller soars to 100m daily active users

ITREALMS:

The Truecaller app has reached over 100 million active users in less than a year following is leapfrogging from 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) per month to 100 million daily active users (DAUs), and is growing faster than ever, reports ITRealms.

With over 20 per cent of its user-base in Africa, Truecaller app service identifies more than half a billion calls a month in the region, and 50 per cent of SMS received were spam.

ITRealms gathered that in Nigeria the application blocks and filters more than 13 million calls and 25 million spam SMSes per month.

From people predominantly using Nokia and BlackBerry phones, to a wide array of Androids and Apple’s, technology is constantly evolving around us. The cost of both mobile phones and data continues to plunge, people all around are now armed with connected devices.

In emerging markets, there is an increased importance placed on smartphones in peoples’ daily lives. It’s their primary gateway to the internet, their connection with family and friends, people abroad, and increasingly their main banking and finance tool.

Alan Mamedi, CEO & co-founder of Truecaller, said: “Close to a decade ago, we set out to solve what we thought was a simple problem – how do we figure out who these unknown numbers belong to that keeps calling us? Little did we know how big of a problem that actually was in all corners of the world.”

“It was so big, in fact, that Truecaller is pleased and excited to announce that we now have more than 100 million daily active users using our app for their daily communication. There are only a handful of mobile-only services that impact as many users each and every day and we are humbled to be able to join this exclusive group,” says Mamedi.

The proliferation of new and advanced technologies that are ever evolving, Truecaller has also come a long way since the day the company was founded. From simple beginnings as a Caller ID and spam blocking app, to a full fledge communications platform with calling, SMS’, Flash Messages and payment services.

“We could never have predicted that Truecaller would become an indispensable resource for women’s safety in many countries; or that it would be used for e-commerce and courier services around the globe to facilitate the difficult last mile of delivery; or allow more people to experience a data-only product in offline mode,” says Mamedi. “Truecaller is more than just an app on your phone, it has aided in bridging the digital divide between the urban and growing semi urban/rural markets in India; and has even enabled more African businesses to accept online payment.”

“We’re continuously working to make communications safer and efficient and the fact that we have so many users validates our mission. We’re excited to see what the next decade and 100 million users bring us. So to all millions of users who helped us get here we would like to say thank you,” Mamedi said.

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GEM report says 100m youth can’t read

ITRealms:

The 2017-2018 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on accountability in education has revealed that an estimated 100 million youth globally cannot read, reports ITRealms.

The second in the GEM Report series, ITRealms reports, showed that there remain major education problems around the world that accountability could help solve, including meeting of commitments, and capable of assisting in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4.

According to the extract of GEM 2017-18 made available to ITRealms, “Only 1 in 10 children in sub-Saharan Africa has basic reading skills. Around the world, 100 million youth cannot even read. One in seven primary school teachers are not trained. Millions continue to be taught in a language they don't speak at home. Meanwhile, the share of education in total aid has fallen for the sixth year in a row, and one in four governments do not meet the agreed education financing thresholds.“

The Report also looked at who is responsible for achieving the global education goal, SDG 4, which showed that calling on individuals and institutions to report how they tried to meet their responsibilities - a process commonly known as accountability - can help achieve an equitable education system of good quality.

Accountability, GEM report underscored, starts with governments, which are ultimately responsible for fulfilling the right to education, stressing that this right should be written into law and strictly enforced.

“Currently, citizens can take their governments to court for violating the right to education in only 55 per cent of countries,” part of the GEM report read, insisting that “everyone has a role to play in improving education.”

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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