A Kenyan gaming company has launched a web-based video conferencing platform, Gumzo, which it describes as the first made in Africa video conferencing platform.
Gumzo, which means “chatting” in Swahili, costs users $1 per week to access.
How Gumzo works
Gumzo has unlimited talk minutes and can accommodate an unlimited amount of users, according to Jay Shapiro, CEO of Usiku Games which created the platform.
It has options of screen sharing and full-screen presentation mode, he added.
Unlike many video conferencing applications, it has no app to download or extensions to configure. Its calls happen in the browser so they can work on any phone or computer with internet access.
Shapiro says one of the problems Gumzo addresses is poor network quality. Most video conferencing applications have their servers outside of Africa, he said, making it sometimes difficult to process calls within the continent.
“When Covid-19 hit Africa, we realized that people were adopting video conferencing … getting on the apps to call their loved ones in lockdown,” he said.
Shapiro’s team wanted to create a localized video conferencing space for Africans to use as an alternative to apps made outside of the continent, he said.