Jonathan Zarra

Jonathan Zarra
Born 1988 (1988)
United States
Residence San Diego, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known for Gochat, The Bulbapedia App, Wiksi Apps, Reverse Phone Lookup Directory, Facebook ChatBot Builder Platform

Jonathan Zarra (born 1988) is the founder and former CEO of GoChat, a top geolocation based chat app for iOS and Android popularized by Pokémon Go, having millions of users. In the months following his departure from GoChat, Zarra then launched a mobile software platform called Wiksi Apps.

Career

GoChat

Zarra was the founder of GoChat. Despite the early success of GoChat, the app saw its fair share of struggles. Within days of its original release on Google Play and Apple's App Store, GoChat had already amassed millions of active users and was having trouble keeping its servers online.[1] After news of the app went viral, Zarra received many different investment opportunities before accepting funding from angel investor Michael Robertson (businessman).

Once funded, the app continued to grow to well over 2 million users within its first 2 weeks. Zarra later accepted an acquisition offer for the majority of the company's shares and stepped down as CEO and from the board of directors to pursue other projects.

Wiksi Apps

Zarra then launched The Bulbapedia App under his new mobile software platform "Wiksi Apps". It was the only app available for Bulbapedia, the online community driven Pokémon Encyclopedia. The app was so successful that within 3 days following its release, it was acquired by and made the official app of Bulbapedia.

Short Code Directory

In an effort to combat spam SMS text messages, Zarra launched the short code directory. Users have the ability to report companies using short code numbers that are not following industry regulation and make scam attempts public knowledge. Within its first 6 months, the website accrued over 600,000 short codes and thousands of users from the community submitted reports about company specific short code operations.[2]

Amico Facebook ChatBot Platform

After the creation of the shortcode directory, Zarra began work on Amico, a Facebook Messenger Bot Platform. Its main purpose was to offer an evolved alternative to SMS Marketing by leveraging the billions of users on the Facebook Messenger app directly. In an interview with Forbes, Zarra stated "It is our firm belief that an advertisement platform as big as this deserves to be equipped with proper technology to prevent this unwanted abuse of its systems."[3]

References

  1. ↑ Newton, Casey (Jul 11, 2016). "This man's Pokémon Go chat app is so successful that it's driving him bankrupt".
  2. ↑ "Watchdog probes £4.50 premium rate texts". Jul 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ "What's Bad For Facebook Ads, Is Also Bad For America". Dec 11, 2017.
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