Amunzi
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"It's Africa's Time" | |
Type of site | Social networking service |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Owner | XyPNET Limited |
| Created by | Tresford Himanansa II |
| URL | amunzi |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | 24 October 2012 |
| Current status | Active |
Amunzi is an African based Social network launched on October 24, 2012, owned and operated by XyPNET Limited. The goal of the site is to unite Africans, make it easier for Africans to meet and learn about their different cultures, people, places etc.
Users are required to register before they start using the site, only then can they create personal profiles, add other Amunzi users to their Communities and exchange private messages, update their Boards by sticking blogs, Photos, Music, Links and asking anonymous questions which other users can answer. The site is similar to other social networks in a way that users receive automatic notifications whenever there are updates from their Community members.
History
Amunzi was founded by Tresford Himanansa II (born February 4, 1987) in June 2011, in his bedroom at his parents’ home in Ndola. Tresford, an Evelyn Hone College graduate who is the current President and C.E.O. of Amunzi’s parent company XyPNET (a software development, web designing and hosting company), is responsible for all operations of the site and setting the overall direction, product strategy and goals for the website. He is the main man and leads almost the entire design of Amunzi’s service and development of its core features, technology as well as infrastructure. The site’s name which was coined by Clive Simanansa, the current President of Amunzi, originates from a Bantu word, “Munzi” which means Community, Home or Village depending on which context it is being used.
Website
Features
Amunzi has many features common to Social networking sites, such as Photo Sharing, User Groups and many others
- Messaging and Multimedia Sharing
Users can exchange private messages on the site. Users can also share Photos, Videos and Music on the site. A user can upload a song and share it with their Community members, Videos are hot-linked from Youtube or Vimeo.
- Places
The site has now introduced Places on the site, making it easy for its users to find interesting places as well for Businesses to manage their Presence on the site.
- Hot, Cool, Funny, and Sorry Buttons
With the understanding that a user will not always Like the content that they see on their boards, Amunzi introduced the Hot, Funny, and Sorry buttons to allow users to express themselves in a more convenient manner on the site. The Hot button is currently only available to Photo Stickers.
- Bible
Users can read and share the bible with their community members and save memory verses. Searching for verses is simplified as members can find verses they do not remember by searching for a particular sentence. Members can also compare verses from different bibles.
- Stickers
Stickers are publicly visible, but Amunzers can restrict the stickers to appear only to selected groups of community members. Users can stick to their Boards via the Amunzi website
- Chat
Amunzi has chat which allows users to chat with other members. Users can also share files and Play Games like Pool, Chess and many others using Amunzi chat. The site also allows users to save their Conversations to desktop…
- Links
Amunzi users can share links to other websites on the site…
- Dictionary
The site has allowed its users to make textual references for the English words that they do not understand
Languages
As of April 2013, the website is accessible in 7 different languages (English, Tonga, Bemba, Chewa, Lunda, Lozi and Luvale). The site is set to be available in Swahili to serve all Swahili speaking Nations, like Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and many others.
Amunzi Reloaded
In 2012, Tresford observed the rise in the number of Features being suggested by the users every day, and after taking some general routines from the structure of the site, he started coding the new Version which he called “Amunzi Reloaded”. On October 24, 2012, he and his team launched Amunzi-reloaded, which came with a Package of better and improved new features.
Third Party Login
Amunzi users can login and make and create an Amunzi profile using their existing Facebook accounts.
Privacy and Security
To mollify concerns about the users, Amunzi in their new website allows its users to control who can view their profiles, Stick on their Boards, inbox them as well as who can see them in search results, through their Privacy Settings.