DiGi Challenge for Change returns in search of Malaysia's top mobile app ideas

Introduces new public services category, and additional platforms for idea and app development

DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) today announced the fifth edition of its annual DiGi Challenge for Change (DiGiCFC) programme, inviting Malaysians and local app developers to ideate and build innovative community-centric mobile apps that bring Malaysians together for positive change.

Christian Thrane, DiGi's Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs officer said that DiGi's Challenge for Change programme has expanded in scope and reach in the past few years, and continues to leverage on the power of mobile internet to bring meaningful change. "Mobile internet and mobile apps remain a relevant and effective platform to inspire and bring about change, especially in the way we experience the internet. This is very much aligned to our business and mission of enabling Internet For All. Through Challenge for Change, we believe we have created a strong foundation on how we engage the public, the local mobile developer community, and industry colleagues to help build relevant local content.

"Mobile apps remain the central premise of the Challenge, built on the theme of 'Bringing Malaysians Together, One App At A Time'. To take it further this year, we have strengthened the Challenge by putting added emphasis on generating ideas and apps that are of greater quality, depth, and relevance through new categories, focused development sessions, partnerships, and incentives for our local developers," Thrane added.

Bigger and stronger
DiGiCFC challenges Malaysians to submit ideas and apps for four categories: Learning & Edutainment, Health & Wellness, Discovering Culture, and a new category called Connected Citizens for mobile app ideas that facilitate the delivery of public services.

To help maximise the quality and potential of each idea and mobile app, DiGi has also established two development events as part of the programme, namely #IDEAJAM, an 'idea hackathon', and #HACK!@DiGiCFC, a 'mobile app hackathon'. These events will serve as checkpoints for participants to refine their ideas and apps respectively, with input and insights from industry experts and partners.

The Challenge ecosystem is also strengthened by DiGi's partnership with 1Malaysia for Youth (iM4U), to reach and encourage greater participation and tap into the innovative genius of Malaysian youths. In addition to iM4U, the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), Digital Malaysia, Google Malaysia, and Microsoft Malaysia continue to support DiGiCFC as partners.

Challenge for Change is open to all Malaysians aged 12 years and above, and will be carried out through two main phases:

Ideation Challenge (27 November 2013 to 18 January 2014)
This phase calls for the public to submit their ideas on www.digicfc.my across four Challenge categories. This phase also includes ideation workshops at universities across the country and #IDEAJAM, the 2-day 'idea hackathon' where 20 shortlisted ideators will be invited to meet and engage with various industry experts to get input and further refine their ideas. The best 4 ideas will be developed into mobile apps in the next phase.

App Development Challenge (26 January 2014 to 24 April 2014)
This phase invites Malaysian developers to build mobile apps of the 4 winning ideas from the ideation challenge, on any mobile operating platform. To accelerate the app development process, developers will be invited to participate in HACK!@DiGiCFC, a 36-hour non-stop mobile app hackathon weekend.

Each app will then be made available for download and review by the public. The most popular and feasible apps for the 4 ideas will win the challenge and DiGi will support these apps by promoting them to its customer base, including its 6.8 million mobile internet subscribers across its various customer touch points.

More than RM200,000 in cash and experiential prizes are up for grabs this year, including:
 - RM5,000 and a smartphone for each of the top 4 idea finalists
 - RM25,000 for each winning app in the respective categories
 - RM25,000 for the best overall idea winner of the DiGi Innovation Award
 - Telenor Group Award for the best developer / team
 - A host of promotions and go-to-market support from DiGi.

In last year's Challenge for Change Season 4, a total of 2,000 ideas for mobile apps were received in the ideation phase, of which seven (7) winning ideas were chosen. During the app development phase, more than 50 mobile apps were developed, from which seven (7) were selected as winners in their respective categories, with each developer or team winning RM25,000 each.

Three of the winning apps from Season 4 have made great progress since winning the Challenge For Change. Team Yo! is now a fully established mobile app start-up, building their business with their winning mobile greetings card app. The team also recently concluded their experiential trip to Digital Winners Conference in Oslo as part of their Telenor Group Award for developing the best mobile app. DiGi has also facilitated the collaboration of Redy (social blood drive app) and My Tradisi (traditional Malaysian games app) with the National Blood Bank (NBB) and National Museum respectively.

For more information on DiGi Challenge for Change and how to participate, visit: www.digicfc.my.