An introduction to Kumu: the messenger,
the mission, the movement.
We’re excited to launch the Public Beta
version of Kumu, a messenger app and media platform built by and for
the Filipino community! You can download it on the App Store, Google Play
Store. In many ways, Kumu is the product of a long process — a labor of love and countless hours of work contributed by an extended team of over 60 leaders from the Philippines, the diaspora, and the global tech community.
But we’re
only beginning. We started discussing this idea six months ago; in comparison,
Facebook has been around for fourteen years, Viber and Instagram for eight.
There remains a massive but exciting gap between where we are and where we want
to be. We’re proud of what our team has built, and we invite you to join and
help us build this from the ground up! This is our Digital Bayanihan.
What is this all about? Why do we need another
messenger app?
What exactly is Kumu?
1. A localized communication app for
the Filipino people
Localized messenger apps are taking over
Asia. Part of it
means designing for the realities and constraints of digital communication in Philippines.
Our video and voice call technology is powered by a unique real-time
communications protocol that is optimized for low connectivity settings
We’ve worked hard to infuse Kumu with a voice
and spirit that’s uniquely Filipino. Our stickers are one example of
this — saturated not only with Filipino language and slang, but also an
undercurrent of Filipino history and mythology, all rendered in vivid color by
some of the best artistic talent in the Philippines. We will take the same
approach to our brand, our marketing, and everything that we do.
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Stickers
by Katsy Garcia, Team Manila, Toto Madayag, Neil Fernando, and Geraldine Sy.
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Filipinos are some of the most creative people
in the world. But
historically, that creativity hasn’t been given the right platform to flourish.
People leave the country to be Broadway actors and musicians. The local media
landscape remains monopolized and insular. Tapping into our innate creativity
isn’t just a matter of expression and inspiration — it’s also the key to
surviving the next decade of disruption.
We’re
building Kumu’s Explore tab as a platform for the digital creative economy in
the Philippines.
Beginning
with our livestream network, Kumu Explore will be the home to artists,
journalists, students, vloggers, historians, musicians, comedians, and all
kinds of creative talent from across the global Filipino community. Our
curation team will ensure a diversity of voices that represent the best of Filipino
talent, and our livestreaming technology will enable a deeper level of
interaction and engagement than anywhere else.
3. A digital economy of services that
make life easier in the Philippines
The Filipino people are naturally viral.
Makati was once named the selfie capital of the world, and the
Philippines was ranked #1 in terms of average time spent on social media.
But for the most part, our digital savvy
remains very separate from our day-to-day economic needs. Filipinos in the
Philippines still have to line up each payday to get their money from the bank;
Filipinos abroad still use remittance services with hidden fees and
unreasonable exchange rates. The cash economy, which remains king, is a
very expensive way of doing business.
Later this year, we’ll be releasing some
solutions to make life a little easier. We want remittances, shopping, payroll,
food delivery, and Balikbayan Boxes to be as fast and easy as posting a selfie.
We want to make everything from day-to-day necessities to other products a more
seamless part of the digital experience. For many of these services, we’ll
be working with some of the best Filipino innovators to integrate their
existing solutions into our platform.
Our goal is to unleash the economic power of
one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
4. A movement to take back our
internet and unlock the power of the Filipino community
When the internet came about, it promised to
be a great equalizer, a way for us to connect and be better together than the
sum of our parts. But fast forward several decades and our internet
infrastructure, too, has been dominated and throttled by a few multinational
corporations. Our social media channels are rigged against us, selling the
public conversation to the highest bidder.
At Kumu, our vision is to harness the full promise of the
internet and digital technology to unlock the power of the Filipino people. We
think that the internet can build stronger communities rather than divide them,
make life easier instead of distracting us from what matters. Digital media can
inspire us and broaden our imaginations. Kumu hopes
to be, more than any single thing, a vehicle to make these possibilities real.
We want to be a platform for the future of the Filipino community, a Filipino
renaissance that is rising and gaining momentum.
We hope you join us in getting there! We need
all the Filipino spirit spirit and energy for the journey ahead. Let’s start
our Digital Bayanihan with Kumu.
Kumu is now available on the Google Play and
App Store.
Learn more at our website: kumu.ph
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