“Imagine a strong Filipino community where an exchange of information can make everyone’s life more comfortable — that is what Loket is,” says Mr. Kael Jang, CEO of Loket Philippines.
Nearly 12 years ago, Mr. Jang started a business in the Philippines and he found out that the biggest challenge of starting any business in the Philippines was insufficient information online for the neighborhood. He wished there was a way where Filipinos can get the information they need-when they need it.
“If only I have a friend that could share to me these information, it could have been more comfortable”, Mr. Jang said.
This same drive to help Filipinos overcome frustration because of insufficient information online and the need for a friendly platform that could guide Filipinos along the way, pushed him to develop a mobile app for Filipino people, created by Filipino people.
“If other countries have their own community app created only for their citizens, Filipinos should have one as well”, he added.
Thus, Loket’s main service as a mobile app is a neighborhood community What’s Up that allows people to share information to each other — from news and announcements, as well as ideas that will create a warm, well-informed, and comfortable neighborhood.
Other than an information-sharing platform, the mobile app also allows the neighborhood to know nearby promotions such as events, discounts, and even job fairs and livelihood seminars through Town Promotion.
Besides a neighborhood community app, Loket also provides information to the neighborhood such as establishments listing nearby called Stores and even Second-hand deals.
While there are other second-hand deals online, Loket makes sure that the Second-hand deals in the mobile app is far different from others. The Second-hand deal section was specially created for peer-to-peer transactions only, thus businesses are off-limits to this section.
“Second-hand deal is a section where peers can buy from items that neighbors do not already use. At some instances, a peer can even get an item for free, just because a neighbor needs to declutter ASAP. This is never a venue for businesses to sell their products and our system will be monitoring this very carefully,” Mr. Jang said.
Ten years from now, Loket team envisions a community mobile app that help bridges Filipinos neighborhood to the government and non-government sectors swiftly. Loket team also envisions a strong neighborhood community online where Filipinos can rely on information, especially on what they need-when they need it.
