Focus Media (Kigali)
Sam Ruburica
5 May 2008
UpCode, which was launched in Rwanda last Friday, will allow people to access additional information on products, buy concert tickets or pay bills with the help of their telephone camera.
Upcode is rapidly gaining progress around the world. Its president, Sture Udd, on Friday explained that UpCode was first launched in 2006, and today has already covered 40 countries.
"We expect to be present in about 100 countries by the end of this year," Mr. Udd said. He added that UpCode has won the world's entrepreneur of the year in mobile services this year.
The increasing popularity of UpCode is probably to be explained by the fact that it offers practical solutions, is relatively cheap to set up and does not require Internet access. All that is needed is a mobile phone with a camera, and companies using an UpCode on their products, bills, billboards etc.
UpCode is indeed both the name of a company and of the essential feature of their product. An UpCode is a square consisting of a hundred black or white dots.
This visual pattern, photographed with a telephone camera, can be recognized by the UpCode software (which can be downloaded for free from the Internet), and this will in turn connect you to additional information, or let you perform various functions, using the cellular network, without having to make use of the Internet.
For example, imagine that you walk around town and come across a poster announcing a concert of your favorite musician. Until now, the poster would mention places where tickets are sold, and you would have to go there to buy one. With UpCode, you could book your place there and then before the poster.
With your mobile phone, you just take a picture of the code printed on the poster, which the UpCode software recognizes as the code for that specific concert, and the appropriate options to buy a ticket will be presented on your phone screen.
In the same way, UpCodes printed on the package of products will give you access to additional information, and invoices with an UpCode can be paid using your telephone.
The UpCode on a business card will allow you to automatically store the person's contact details in your phone, without having to manually enter them. The possibilities are endless.
Free service
During the launch of UpCode in Rwanda, the executive director of the Rwanda Information Technology Agency (RITA), Nkubito Bakuramutsa, said that UpCode is a technology that has a low cost deployment compared to other IT providers.
An added advantage, he pointed out, is that UpCode would be cost free to the users, and charges would only occur when specific information is required. "A company will sign an agreement with UpCode and pay for the service, but users will access it for free," Bakuramutsa said.
However, it is obviously necessary for companies to use UpCodes, and therefore, Bakuramutsa said, RITA is in the process of linking the company with the private sector.
It has to be noted that Friday's launch was attended by many company directors, as well as by the chairman of the Private Sector Federation, Robert Bayigamba.
According to the RITA director, the system would make it much easier for companies to disseminate up-to-date information, and for customers to find it.
Olivier Nizeyimana the executive director of UpCode Rwanda, pointed out that, although information access is one of the most obvious applications of UpCode, the system can be used for lots of practical functions.
For example, if driver's licenses carry an UpCode, a traffic police officer could fine you and register the fine without having to write down your personal details.
Other applications, Nizeyimana said, are the payment of bills, the prevention and tracking of counterfeits, as well as solutions for copy protection. "The main advantage is that it is accessible anywhere in the world on a 24 hour basis," Nizeyimana said.
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