Deepak Ravindran, the co-founder of “Innov”, has created the offline Google for the billions of “dumb-phone” users around the world. Innov is an automated artificial intelligence that receives SMS (text messages) from subscribed users and then replies via text message with the information asked for.
Innov plugs the gap for people who have phones, but have no internet access. Deepak created Innov with the dream of giving people access to information in a simple and affordable way. In developing Innov Deepak said, ” We don’t want to be another Internet company competing with Android, or any other OS. We just want to provide a solution for all of us to bring the Internet to the people that don’t have it.”
Innov offers an affordable monthly subscription plan of 30 rupees per month, which is less than one US dollar. This plan offers dumb-phone users full access to the offline web. Deepak launched Innov in India, however today they are operating in seven different countries. “More than 120 million users have tried the service around the world so far,” says Deepak. “We’re focusing on developing nations – we want to be the Google for the developing world.”
Deepak’s innovation and goals as an entrepreneur are inspiring. He saw a problem, people having cell phones with no internet access, and found a simple yet innovative way to solve the problem. Not only has his business been successful, but it has brought about social change for good, bringing information to groups of people who before have no access to the internet.
This is such a brilliant idea, especially for populated developing countries like India. While I was there, I saw a couple similar ideas (such as SMS maps or jokes), but the data is actually cheaper than the service, so lots more people would use WhatsApp with data. It is a great bridge as a solution to the gap due to technology inavailability. Thanks for sharing!