A quickly dying battery and limited memory are the two biggest problems that millenials face with their smartphones on a daily basis. Batteries can
be recharged, even replaced but space remains always an issue. In a 16GB smartphone, almost half the memory is accounted for by proprietary
software. There are just two ways to get more space – add a memory card or remove old pictures and videos that are already there on the device.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a third way to get real estate on the device quickly. That’s what Bangalore-based Tapzo – named after being a
single tap app – is doing by bringing out an All in one app. Tapzo – that was till mid-2015 called Helpchat – has aggregated multiple categories of
app into one comprehensive app which offers cabs, ordering food, mobile recharges, bill payments, news, horoscopes and deals at one spot. Says
Pratik Vimal, VP business, Tapzo: “We occupy just 10MB but offer a repetoire of services to the user.”
In cabs, Tapzo has tied up with Uber, Ola, Mega Cabs, Savaari and Jugnoo. In food booking, the user can access Swiggy, Zomato, Freshmenu. While
there have been 2.5 million downloads of tha app on the Google Play Store, it has seen transactions on the app rise over 13X since the beginning of
the year. It has gone up from 4,000 a day in January 2016 to 55,000 a day now. More importantly, there are 9-10 transactions by individual users in a
month.
While Tapzo is focussing on the current offerings, Patil points out that over the next six months it will look to integrate movies, flight and bus
bookings too. Also on the anvil are getting music and video sharing apps on to Tapzo.
So how does Tapzo monetize? Considering that the regular apps have a newer source, Tapzo gets a commission on every transaction from its partners. It also gets a higher commission when it is able to drive a new user to the platform. Currently, the two main sources of income are transactions and
new user acquisition. It is not looking at advertising revenues in the immediate future.
But for the harried smartphone user, Tapzo helps her save data, save space and could also lead to lower data usage. Maybe, its time to be the
aggregator’s aggregator. That should be great news for the rising breed of Indian smartphone users.
