They began globally, which is rather unique. Their first products entered the US market and only later appeared in Poland. Currently, 80% of their production is made for global markets. Bartłomiej Lozia, completed his studies in IT at the Technical University of Wroclaw in 2000. He set up Jojo Mobile in 2010 in Wroclaw. Two mobile platforms were available at the time: iOS from Apple and Android from Google. Microsoft announced the launch of Windows Phone, which was intended to offer solutions that are competitive to those by Apple or Google.
"In my previous company, I was cooperating with Microsoft. I was confident in their potential, but at some decided that it was high time trying something new," says Bartłomiej Lozia. Our goal was to copy well-known and tested business models that were compatible with Android or iOS systems, and to transfer these solutions to Windows Phone and later sell them globally online. So, while working from Wroclaw, we wanted to sell our ideas worldwide, using the potential offered by Microsoft."
In 2011, Jojo Mobile became the first Polish company to sign a contract with Microsoft to provide Windows Phone applications.
Household name in Scandinavia
With these apps, an ordinary man in the street can now listen to an audio book, read a press release by "Rzeczpospolita", "Wyborcza" and "Gazeta Wrocławska" dailies or use selected banking services. Their products are now a household name in Scandinavia, where people use them to watch TV. They also created a mobile app for Polskie Radio, which you can now use to listen to their podcasts in your phone. One of the first Windows Phone products to be used by Wirtualna Polska (news and TV apps) was also designed by Jojo Mobile.
Where are you now?
The mobile industry has changed a lot since 2010. The number of smartphones in the market is growing, tariff plans are increasingly cheaper, and it is rather obvious having access to the Internet in your smartphone. Apart from news apps and games, the market is now full of apps to help you in tour daily life, e.g. service browsers or taxi apps. There is also a new trend to provide video content. Not only can the ordinary man in the street watch cable TV at home, but also watch the same content in his tablet or smartphone and use VOD services.
"We create apps to watch a video in a smartphone or tablet. We also design apps compatible with cable TV decoders. Smart TV by Apple and Android is a special intelligent TV set with apps that provide access to the Internet, which makes it easier for you to speak to your friends on Skype, have access to incoming mail or use voice commands," says Sławomir Piwko, Co CEO at Better Software Group SA.
Holiday request over the phone
They also offer solutions for large companies with over ten thousand employees on board. This includes management and information processing support using mobile apps, e.g. making holiday requests without the need to visit your HR Department. "One of the latest projects of ours is designed to support voting procedures in companies. If shareholders want to make a decision, they can do so without turning up at the meeting or video conference. They will receive a notification, e.g. 'we are discussing the following point on the agenda, and have 2 hours to make a decision; are you for or against?'" says Bartłomiej Lozia.
They started in three people
Jojo Mobile started in a rented flat in ul Obornicka and with three people on board. As soon as they took on another three people, they moved to larger premises in ul Piłsudskiego. When their personnel grew to several dozen people, they rented an entire floor at the ASCO Building in ul Piłsudskiego, which is also their current location. They currently employ 80 people in Wroclaw. "We work a lot off-site. We speak to most of our clients in video conferences. We operate globally, including the USA, Scandinavia or Australia," says Bartłomiej Lozia.
What was your recipe for success? "We had the courage to explore new areas and develop our competences. We created an offer for iPhone customers in the US, and Android and Windows Phone customers in Europe and Poland, where 20% of the users have the latter application in their phones. This generated a lot of business. Another niche that we entered included solutions for TV, which allowed us to transfer our mobile expertise onto screens larger than that of a smartphone."
To make 10 million PLN
The first subsidy they obtained to set up the business (500 thousand PLN) came for the Warsaw-based business incubator IQ Partners. "The money helped us to design first products, reach out to first clients and make our presence felt in the market," adds Bartłomiej Lozia. In 2016, Jojo Mobile Polska merged with Coba Technologies to create Better Software Group SA. The current value of the company is estimated at... 10 million PLN
Does Jojo sound professional enough?
The company began with games, and the name Jojo, which stands for yo-yo in Polish, was to suggest entertainment. As we developed, our clients started to feel uneasy. They expected something more serious. Banks simply cannot afford to admit that their latest mobile sales channel was provided by Jojo.
The company runs an ongoing recruitment process. New employees are usually referred to the company by those who already work there. Hence the team where everybody knows and understands each other. Bartłomiej Lozia remains rather evasive on remuneration at Jojo Mobile: "The IT industry is rather spoiled. Software developers in Wroclaw make between 10 to 20 thousand PLN monthly."
The future is in the IoT
Bartłomiej Lozia believes that a growing number of elements in our life will be communicating with one another. This generates massive amounts of data. Someone has to process and analyses them. On the one hand, better and custom-made solutions will be developed. This comes at a price, however, because we are likely to lose our privacy. "Where does this lead to? I have no idea. Everything changes too fast. Our company has made a huge leap forwards over the last six years, during which we changed our business model twice. When I began, I did not realise that I was going to do things I'm doing," says Bartłomiej Lozia.
Natural born IT guys
Bartłomiej Lozia is forty years old, and has two sons (six and eight years of age), who are both natural born IT guys, as their father reveals. They could use a tablet before they started to read and write because they used voice search options. To browse YouTube, they just had to say the name of their favourite cartoon. On hearing that part of the blame for contemporary mobile addictions is on Jojo Mobile, Bartłomiej Lozia responds with a smile: "Phones are now like leaflets or newspapers. If you look at the pictures of the New York metro from the 1950s, you'll see people reading newspapers. The world has shrunk, and we are now faster absorbing more information. The smartphone is just a new medium."
In photographs: Better Software Group from Wroclaw. Credentials: BSG
