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The Inside Story
We spoke to Stanley Odjadovwa, product developer at Codulab, who designed the bot...
First of all, can you tell us a bit about who you are?
I'm Stanley Ojadovwa, a product developer at Codulab. Codulab is one of Africa’s most innovative product accelerator companies, focusing on delivering software solutions.
What part have you played in creating Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsChatta?
NewsChatta is an idea that we submitted at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Connected Studio, World Service event in, Lagos, Nigeria. I have been involved in the pilot since the chatbot idea got selected - assembling and managing the team that built the final design.
Can you tell us a bit more about what Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsChatta is?
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsChatta is a chatbot that provides news content in a personalised format to young audiences across Africa, with the aim of delivering the content in timely and interesting manner, and in a way that fits into users' current digital routines.
How does the chatbot work?
NewsChatta interfaces with the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ news APIs to deliver latest news contents to users in a fun and conversational way via the WeChat Messenger app.
Who is the chatbot targeted at?
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsChatta is targeted at young people in Africa, between the ages of 16 - 34, and who live in urban areas. This audience have a high use of smartphones, and not just for calls and social networking purposes, but for other aspects of their live such as emailing, banking, playing games and reading news as well.
Why do you think it will be useful to young people in Nigeria?
Nigerians like fun and entertainment. The fact that they can easily get the information about happenings around the world without leaving their chat app is a strong draw. For most young Nigerians, NewsChatta would be a whole new experience receiving news and sport updates in a more conversational manner. For others, the thought of not having to download an extra app before accessing news contents saves mobile data and storage space.
How do you get access to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsChatta?
1. Install the WeChat app on your mobile device.
2. Inside the WeChat app, search for “NewsChatta” by tapping the plus (+) button in the WeChat app window (top-right) and then type "NewsChatta" in the search bar.
3. Click the ‘Follow’ button.
After adding NewsChatta you will get a welcome message with a list of commands that you can type to get news content from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ. You can then click on the menu buttons to select news topics that interest you.
