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By July 2020, firms like Dwell Nation had been reeling from losses. Different occasion centre homeowners had been additionally leasing their locations out to make no matter they may make again for mortgage. Dwell occasions will not be only a supply of billion greenback revenues although, they’re additionally a method of other leisure – one of the best kind.
The one motive they’re worthwhile within the first place is as a result of folks attend them and purchase issues at these occasion centres. In Nigeria, December is related to a number of reside occasions that because of Mr. Eazi has now been tagged, ‘Detty December.’ However this 12 months, there might be little to no main occasions.
Scheduled occasions like Livespot Xclusive, which was set to function superstars, Wizkid and Burna Boy have posted and so has The Basement Gig, organized by the Osagie Osarenz-led The Zone Company. But it surely’s not all doom and gloom although, occasions are throughout us; there might be home events, intimate gatherings and delightful occasions – we simply want to search out them.
After a troublesome 12 months of being cooped up at house and witnessing the grotesque occasions of the EndSARS protests, younger Nigerians have to unwind. Enter Faaji…
What’s Faaji?
‘Faaji’ is Yoruba and in English it means ‘Pleasure.’
In September 2020, Ayo Olagunju and a few his techy pals began FaajiApp after they encountered a private drawback. A month prior, Olagunju who’s a product supervisor and reluctant nucleus of the group had a celebration at Ilashe round Ajah-Abraham Adesanya components of Lagos. However sadly, turnout was low and so had been enthusiasm and venue spirit.
In that second, Olagunju noticed a possibility, “I assumed that as an alternative of the common main occasions the place Davido, Naira Marley and Wizkid can be headliners, we’d have loads of decentralized events. We then determined to guess on an app that identifies and aggregates events for younger Nigerians with a have to celebration.”
Olagunju and his group of 10 techy guys had been proper. Earlier in December 2020, Pulse Nigeria did a report on the state of ‘Detty December’ occasions in Lagos. It gathered views of occasion organizers, occasion centre homeowners and a high-ranking member of the Lagos State Ministry of well being. The notion was fairly clear, “There could be occasions, BUT…”
What’s FaajiApp?
At the moment the app is run by three tech engineers, three designers, photographer, graphic designers and Olagunju himself.
FaajiApp principally goals to mixture occasions and current to registered customers by doing the next;
- Study the preferences of customers based mostly on celebration/occasion sort, sort of music, variety of folks, location, proximity, affordability, anti-COVID-19 measures and so forth.
- It sources occasions from the most important, most credible occasion promoters in Lagos. It then will get all of those celebration organizers to register their respective events on the app with location, celebration sort, most capability, drinks accessible, meals accessible, time of occasion, gate price, attraction and so forth.
- It additionally helps occasion organizers doubtlessly generate income from their occasions.
- FaajiApp then goals to generate a lower from each occasion that runs by its utility. It additionally generates funds by ensuring that its customers commit financially earlier than they are often serviced.
In response to Olagunju, “Our strategy to person pursuits is gamified. As soon as a person is registering on the app, their pursuits are famous. Equally, each time they should go to a special sort of occasion to their preliminary curiosity, the app additionally helps them navigate that. Our job is to be dense sufficient to cowl bases and all of the varieties of occasions these younger Nigerians need to attend.”
Olagunju says that the goal is to supply a partygoer with an inventory of events with a 50% match fee. The partygoer can then resolve which is for them. At the moment, FaajiApp is an online app.
“It’s additionally our job to current the closest matches and supply alternate options to what the partygoer may need signified to us,” Olagunju continues.. “As I communicate, we have already got 120 occasions in Lagos alone and it’s loads of selection; we’ve sip-n-paint, silent disco… and even intercourse events. I didn’t even know they’d these in Lagos [laughs] – somebody has 4 of these.”
What helps Faaji is that it has 38 occasion varieties. The corporate simply desires to promote occasions on the idea of subjective ‘Faaji.’ Olagunju elaborated, “We’re very conscious that Faaji means loads of issues to lots of people.”
Not like Eventbrite, FaajiApp says that it goals to take a extra customized strategy. Olagunju says that the app deliberately cuts out all the intense stuff and limits its mannequin to the model, ‘Faaji.’
“We’re not into webinars. The design of our web site is even geared in the direction of 18-30 celebration animals. You may’t see the design and take into consideration webinars or lectures [laughs],” he jokes. “The kind of celebration animal you might be is a psychological query. We use animals to represent the peak of celebration animal intuition. Clearly, in case you are a tiger you should be A1 so we advise your sort of celebration for you.”
Security and safety
First off, Olagunju and his Faaji group understands that safety and security are integral to events and their mannequin. AirBnb is one thing to study from in loads of methods. Actually, Olagunju is a product supervisor who spoke with girls and obtained their perspective on tips on how to enhance the app’s options.
“If an individual has a home celebration in Lekki for instance, each time they submit their handle to us, we confirm it and allow them to find out about verification or in any other case earlier than we proceed,” Olagunju clarifies.
He then goes on to say that key focus is on celebration hosts by amassing their BVN, operating background checks, watching social media exercise and so forth. Nevertheless, their most potent security and safety measure is that Faaji solely works with 20 reputed celebration hosts for now.
Monetization, subscription and subscribers
Like every other enterprise, Faaji desires to earn cash. The primary gateway to its monetization mannequin is that it doesn’t present its customers the complete handle to events upon a dedication from its customers.
“It’s a celebration proper, we even have home events. When you actually prefer it that a lot, you possibly can put your cash the place your mouth is and pay us N1000,” Olagunju says. “After ‘discover celebration’ is clicked whereas a person is on the lookout for a celebration, he’ll see ‘be a part of a celebration.’ That’s the place we demand cost. That is the place you see the variety of folks there and the utmost capability of the celebration.”
The mannequin additionally features a month-to-month subscription of N5000 as a result of Olagunju and his group don’t suppose N1000 to entry instructions to any of these occasions is possible for many Nigerians. What stays to be seen is whether or not N5000 will solely apply to December as a month-to-month plan as a result of most individuals will not be as specific about occasions throughout a lot of the different months within the 12 months.
Faaji has additionally carried out partnerships with firms like Sea Lounge and BLG. So if any subscriber goes to an occasion in any of these locations by Faaji, they get discounted service. Faaji can also be in talks with Uber to get discounted charges for its subscribers.
Past Detty December
“The plan is to transcend Detty December. The goal is to be the house of ‘party-on-the-go…” Olagunju says. “You understand how Uber or Bolt is now intrinsically linked to Nigerian transportation or Jumia Meals is now that to meals, we need to be like that for events.”
The goal is to make use of this COVID interval as a springboard, Faaji will proceed and broaden into different endeavours because it grows and scales. Olagunju says that he feels one thing Faaji was all the time wanted in Lagos – COVID or not.
Faaji, a sincere take
At the moment, Faaji wants to enhance sure issues round language choice to extend its market share, safety and security measures that stretches far in addition to its pricing post-detty December. Actually, security and safety measures for the app should be extra elaborate.
There must be a witness programme, a time and placement monitoring function like on Uber and Bolt in addition to a timing function. The corporate can even have to work time beyond regulation in Lagos, the place the authorized and safety methods are dire.
However for now, Faaji App might serve a goal. Particularly when Nigerians want occasions to attend.
