App of the Year Awards winners revealed

Team Domestly: MTN Business App of the Year winner.

Image source: @Andile_Khumalo via Twitter.

The ceremony honoured app developers whose winning solutions were selected from over 450 entries competing in several categories. The App of the Year Awards celebrates the out-of-the-box thinkers that drive change through real solutions that deal with real problems. The six categories for this year’s Awards are Best Enterprise, Best Consumer, Best Enterprise Development, and Best Breakthrough Developer, Best Most Innovative and Best Mobile Gaming.

Solving real problems

Domestly was named as the winner in the Best Consumer App category and overall MTN Business App of the Year winner for their on-demand cleaning service application that allows users to browse, book and pay a cleaner when and where they need them. The app enables cleaners to manage bookings, manage their money and find maps and directions to each booking. Developed by co-founders Thatoyoana Marumo and Berno Potgieters, the Domestly app has created 600 sustainable jobs in the six months it has been live.

MTN Business SA chief enterprise officer, Alpheus Mangale says: “In a globally competitive and connected world, developers who can come up with the most compelling solutions and solve real problems in smart ways will be the most successful and recognised. Through the MTN Business App of the Year Awards we want to ensure that app developers across South Africa are able to monetise and commercialise their smart technological ideas with ease, contributing positively to economic growth and the recognition of South Africa’s developer community as true innovators.”

Innovation overflow

Other winners include iKhokha in the Best Enterprise App 2016 category, HearZA was rewarded for Best Enterprise Development App 2016 category, Tuta-me scooped the Best Breakthrough Developer App 2016 category, while KaChing was chosen as the Best Most Innovative App 2016 category and Friendly Math Monsters for Kindergarten was named the Best Mobile Gaming App 2016 category.

“We are pleased to note that this event has become a catalyst for technological change in the country and has successfully connected app developers with the formal economy,” Mangale says. “This is not surprising, telecoms is an innovative industry – discovering new solutions is its currency. The future is about discovering and promoting new solutions to deal with real South African problems. We are delighted that we enable developers to launch their apps into the world with the confidence that it has the MTN App badge of 'APProval'. We offer these awards as a vehicle to promote their great work to the rest of the world.”