3 min read
Be it big Tech & IT giants or individual software developers, all are developing products to entertain, engage, and attract people and interactive apps are the best way to do that. However, making a successful app is not a child’s play. If your app is not interesting it will not attract users.
Today we will tell you about a young guy named ZainAlabdin Tawfiq from Saudia Arabia, who while working as a part-time developer created an app named Sarahah, where people can give each other feedback. The app is currently the most popular app at App stores, beating out social media giants such as Instagram and YouTube.
So what made Zain develop Sarahah
While talking to a media outlet Zain said that at workplaces people often do not give proper and useful feedback to their bosses due to fear of losing their job. The power dynamics in workplaces revolve around a company’s boss and, often, going against them or giving feedback against the boss’s opinion could cause a person their job.
“There’s an issue in the workplace people need to communicate frankly to their bosses”, he further said. Necessity is the mother of invention. One doesn’t need billions to solve a problem when it can be solved with clever thinking. That is exactly what Zain did!
At first, he developed the app for employees. However, due to its popularity, the app was later released to the general public. People are now using it to give honest feedback to their friends and family as Sarahah in Arabic means “honesty”. The app lets one give feedback while retaining their anonymity.
At first, only a handful of people knew about the app and downloaded it. But Zain took a tip from Malcom Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point and shared the app with one of his influencer friends. A single message from this friend made his app an instant hit and “it spread like a virus”. Now, it is the number one app in almost thirty countries, including USA and France. As of now, it has racked up 250 million visitors.
As mentioned before, Zain is not a full-time developer. After graduating from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Computer Science in 2014, he is currently working as a business systems analyst at an oil company in Saudia Arabia. Isn’t it amazing that companies are spending millions of bucks to build apps for people across the globe and, on the contrary, a part-time developer builds an app without spending a penny, attracting millions from around the globe?
The app debuted on App stores on 13th June and is now available in Arabic and English language. It can be downloaded on both Android and iOS.
