Introduction.We’ve been seeing the 876 brand pop pretty often online. So we decided to interview the people behind this internet startup based in Kingston, Jamaica.
SC: Who are the people behind the 876 brand? 876: Leaon Graham (Spaz)- 24 Year Old; Software & Web developer; Charlie Murphy (shadow board member) 22 years old, web application developer; Souad Lawrence(LiquidBunny)- 21 years old;Mario Smith(Blindz) – 23 Year Old. All Jamaicans living and working in Jamaica. 2 Wolmer’s high school graduates and another from Ardenne.
SC: What’s your vision for the 876 branded site network? 876: A “scillion”, but in all seriousness were mainly focusing on a few key markets; however the vision has us venturing into a lot of different markets in the foreseeable future. The current main sites are http://blog.in876.com, http://events.in876.com,http://tech.in876.com, http://hotspots.in876.com, http://business.in876.com, http://mobile.in876.com, http://animesynergy.com.
In detail: http://blog.in876.com – This is our developer’s blog, due to how many ideas we get for improving the sites in the network, it’s our way of letting the community know what we are working on or have implemented. It also serves as a way to gauge the feedback from the community.http://events.in876.com – We like to think of this site as our flagship website, technically it’s the second site but it was the easiest to get some momentum behind.http://tech.in876.com – Not a lot of us are happy with the Techjamaica way of doing things we saw areas we could be better than they are and we are going after an alternative for technology loving Jamaicans.http://hotspots.in876.com – Developed to highlight the local hotspots in Jamaica, in an easy to navigate directory fashion. members vote on the spots they like the hottest make it to the top. Hotspots was also the first site we did a complete mobile version for, because we see the future being played out on a mobile platform.http://business.in876.com – Originally the first website of the in876 Network, Business.in876.com is built on a B2B (business to business) framework. The main idea behind the site was to allow Jamaican business to trade with each other, find buyers and suppliers for their goods and services as well as allow regional and international entities to find Jamaican business. Its a bit harder getting this site off the ground because we wanted support from Jampro and other Business related associations. Didn’t make much headway with that so it’s on the back burner for the better part of 2007. 2008 however we plan on making a more co-ordinated push, to establish the in876 brand and network. http://mobile.in876.com – A recent addition to the family mainly because we recently got smart phones (HTCs). and http://animesynergy.com
SC:What is the business model for the site network? How do you plan on making money? 876: Revenue will be generated through the sale of advertising space as well as through the provision of premium services such as, a listing that is kind of beefed up… where it’s more “visible” to the visitor. There will also be partnerships with promoters where we will help them to publicize their event via some snazzy features that events.in876.com has which goes beyond the regular listing that you would see on the calendar interface. Also by building our user base, targeted advertising isn’t out of our reach as we can offer specialized advertising campaigns to companies whose target market matches our demographics. Most of this is clearly in regard to events.in876.com as it’s the cornerstone or flag ship product of the in876network)
SC: Describe your start up environment-where was your office, staff numbers?876: Well hmm quite interesting question *lol* with regards to an office we actually did a military capture of a complete office in a medical center that one of the developers consults for. However, apparently the owner for the proverbial yard is here so we’re currently out of a physical location at the moment.
SC: Are you self funded or angel/venture funded? 876: Oh we are soo self funded that our wallets scream at the mention of our plans
SC: Why didn’t you go Caribbean, many argue that my being “too local” in focusing on Jamaica only you are limiting yourself especially since the Internet penetration here is still under 40% ? 876: All in due time my dear, after conquering the Jamaican market we will expand to other parts of the Caribbean.
SC: How do you plan to make the 876 brand a household name in Jamaica? 876: We are currently Developing an advertising campaign that will span print, web, radio, and out of home advertisement mediums. The campaign’s main goal is to drive awareness to the brand. We will also continue to offer quality and stimulating user experiences with our products because at the end of the day it’s all about the users. We are also banking on the continued attention/support/interest of Jamaican web bloggers like your self.
SC: What are the top 3 things Jamaica and the Caribbean need to inspire an American 90s Internet economy boom? 876: 1. Free up the banks dammit. Ecommerce is way to difficult to implement in Jamaica, We have so many ideas sitting on but to get a merchant account from NCB and Scotia is almost impossible we need to call them out on this issue. 2. The old people need to either die / retire or free their minds. The brick and mortar world isn’t dead but they need to grasp technology a bit more and understand that moving forward is only possible if they embrace the new ideas being pushed by the young professionals fresh out of college. At the end of the day they get to have their own way and stifle the growth of Jamaica‘s web/Internet infrastructure 3. Continued expansion of the broadband Internet access in the local market. It’s been good over the last couple years Just don’t let it stop there Service needs to be maintained, Quality of service needs to be stepped up a bit (you know we talking about cable and wireless) 4. Although you only asked for 3 things. I think I wouldn’t feel good about my self if I didn’t say this. Open source, Jamaica needs to embrace open source technologies a bit more. Without open source technologies none of the developers in the in876network would be able to produce the quality of work that we’re currently doing.
SC: Why do you think YouTube’s, Google’s, Yahoo’s, Ebay are yet to come from the Caribbean and can we expect it at all? 876: We can expect it to come but until the perception of the Internet changes in Jamaica it probably won’t happen. The people who own .com.jm needs to burn…it should be .jm and nothing more. Additionally, the people in Jamaica need to be educated about the Internet and how it benefits them, that it’s not only beneficial to America.
SC: What are the areas can Caribbean tech entrepreneurs look in order to score their first Internet million in USD Dollars that is? What are the top 5 viable Internet businesses that are now missing in the Caribbean? 876: Online retailing it doesn’t really exist in Jamaica.
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