Mozilla’s Pocket Launches in East Africa

Mozilla Firefox’s app that allows users to save content to read later, Pocket, has officially launched in East Africa and will now push local content on the platform.

Pocket has been in existence for over ten years and has even had a transformational journey from ‘Read it Later’ to what it is today, ‘Pocket’. Mozilla is currently on a journey to have more people sign into pocket and find content that is curated for their consumption, based on their interests and preferences.

Vice President at Mozilla and the General Partner for Pocket, Matt Koidin, says that Pockets is excited to onboard East African content creators as it adds more diversity to content that’s available on the Pocket platform. Matt Koidin and Carolyn O’Hara (the senior director, content discovery at Pocket) were both present for the launch of Pocket in Nairobi Kenya.

“Part of our interest in coming to Kenya is that we want to be part of the amazing stories that content creators tell in East Africa. This is why we came to partner with the Aga Khan University, who have connected us with these amazing voices, creators and curators. We want to launch into this market with amazing content from the market,” Matt Koidin noted.

As Mozilla roll out the Pocket app, it is also an attempt to try and get more people to use the browser. Pocket is an app that can be downloaded via Google Playstore or the Apple store, and is also an extension on the Mozilla Firefox browser.

The Aga Khan University comes in as curator partners with Pocket. AKU will help Pocket find local content that can be consumed by East African people and even the rest of the globe.

The launch event for Pocket in East Africa attracted a lot of content creators and writers from the region. There was an informative and interactive panel discussions that included the likes of Dr Njoki Chege, Rayhab Gachango, and Carolyn O’Hara.

Speaking at the panel, Rayhab Gachango, the founder of Potentash welcomed the idea of Pocket and said that it is an opportunity for East African content creators to tell their stories to the world.

“The same way we have been reading stories from Japan, and the other countries. This is the time for these other countries to also read our stories,” she said.