SLA Mobile and Zain, a leading telecommunications company in the Middle East and Africa, announce the launch of the 'Zain Hackathon'.
The hackathon gives Zain the precedence among the region's mobile operators in launching a Direct Operator Billing challenge to developers and the wider public, whereby winners can earn a total of prizes worth of USD 15,000.
The Zain Hackathon challenge has been launched to drive innovation and recognize participants' skills in the development of apps that monetize network assets. The challenge is to design a fully functional mobile app which uses SLA Mobile's frictionless Direct Operator Billing APIs and engages Zain customers in any of the following categories: Games, News, Entertainment, Utilities, Social Network, Sports, Travel, Search Tools and Weather.
Direct Operator Billing presents a real opportunity for mobile operators and marketing partners to meet consumers' need for a real-time way to pay for goods and services without the use of credit card details. Transactions appear on the customer's mobile phone bill. Prepay customers simply pay using their credit balance. Direct Operator Billing is a simple and secure, one-click purchase experience.
Eligibility to participate in the challenge is open to all individuals and entities that reside in a country in which Zain operates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan and Sudan.
The first place winner of the 'best app' category will be rewarded with USD 10,000, while the second place prize for the 'most innovative app' will be USD 4,000, and the third place prize for the 'most promising app' will be USD 1,000. The rewards extend to include revenue shares from any roll outs of the winners' applications to any of the Zain operations.
Registration for the challenge is now open and will close on 15 November. App submissions will start on 17 November until 23 November, and the judging phase will take place between 24 November and 28 November when the winners will be announced. Following that, the award ceremony will occur on the last day of Zain Tecchnology Conference (ZTC) on 3 December 2013 in Dubai.