MUMBAI: Actor, philanthropist Sonu Sood and tech entrepreneur Jitin Bhatia have launched a travel based social media app Explurger. They claim that half a million users from over 40 countries are already present on its beta version. The app creates automatic travelogues by using artificial intelligence. It gamifies the social experience and rewards users for being socially active.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com Explurger founder, CEO Jitin Bhatia noted that the idea came to him a few years back “I remember that I had come back from a place that I had visited. I had been to that place many times. I looked at social networks where I had earlier shared photos and content to find out how many times I had been to that place but I could not find any travelogue. That is where the whole concept of a social media app for travellers came to my mind. While users share photos and videos and get a few likes, comments after a few hours or days that content becomes history. Everyone forgets about it. So, I felt the need to create a social media app where every time a user creates a post and shares a photo or a video the A.I. in the app automatically creates a travelogue.

“It keeps track of the miles, cities, places that the user has been to without any extra effort from the user’s side. That was the eureka moment for me and I started speaking to my friend Sonu Sood. He also had the vision that there should be a made in India social media app that is used by global audiences.”

Bhatia added that the aim was also to give something back to users who share so much content and information. “In other networks they spend so much time but they do not get anything back in return. We combined these two concepts and we also decided to give rewards to users for being socially active. This is the second differentiator in our app. Another differentiator is that this is a social media app that uses gamification. The user level goes up every time a post is shared. The user earns Explurger counts. Higher the level more is the user’s recognition on the platform. This is how Explurger was born.”

On the investment side he said that the app was bootstrapped initially. Last year a pre-series round of $1 million was raised. “Even then people had no idea of Sonu Sood being involved. We went out in the market and the virality around the beta version was good enough to raise the pre-series round. From three people we now have 22 people. We have reached a level where we can go global. In the past six months we have got users from over 40 countries.”

On the revenue side he said that there will be five sources. “We have not started monetisation yet but we are looking to do so in the coming six months. We are looking at raising series A. We will close it soon and in a year’s time from now we expect three of those revenue streams to be active.”

He added that so far 39 brands have tied up with the app and that is how rewards are being given to users. These, he said, are category A brands and the app is talking to global brands also including an airline. “More brands will come on-board. Brands want the amplification of their brand name.”

The aim of the app is to create a solid base of content creators who will be rewarded. “In addition, we are looking to monetise the content that is created. This is the second phase. Revenue will be shared. Alliances are being done with different partners."

Bhatia added that Sonu Sood is not a brand ambassador.   “He is my partner, co-founder and is fully involved in the product. I handle the technology side. On the creative side he is fully involved. In fact, we have two offices in Delhi and Mumbai and we have our tech team sit in Delhi while in Mumbai we have our creative team. This is where he plays a big role. He also plays a big role in terms of the user acquisition.  He is well known on social media. People love him.  He has over three million followers across social media.”

He said that the opportunity for his app is that 76 percent of four billion global social media users share pictures while on the move. That means around three billion people and this is the potential market. On the promotional and marketing activities front he said that so far user growth has been organic in the apps’ beta version. Now as Sonu Sood has been unveiled to the people as co-founder Bhatia is sure that many people who love the actor would start coming. 

"He is a known personality. Our intention is to grow the app through word of mouth.  This will happen only if the product speaks for itself.  Our goal is to improve the product and features.

On the tech front he said that the challenge is to come up with new ideas that have never been seen before. “The kind of concept that we have has not been done before by anyone.  A lot of R&D (research and development) was required in creation, developing new algorithms around the app. But user acquisition has not been a challenge. As we improved the app the usage also improved. Now we have to make sure that the product keeps engaging people. They must use it on a day-to-day basis.”

With Sonu Sood as his partner, the Explurger idea might well travel.