I have considered what new digital tools/apps would be great in Moldova for the past few weeks. More specifically, a tool that lies at the intersection of technology, societal impact, and monetizability. It would also have to be specifically tailored to the Moldovan ecosystem. If I were to do it, I would start with the capital – Chisinau, and then expand to the other parts of Moldova later. After that, expand further out in Eastern Europe if the product succeeds.
Here’s some brainstorming of possible apps. It might be helpful to me in the future or someone reading this. It’s a rough draft, and some ideas might be terrible – or exist in some form – but it’s still a starting point worth considering.
Brainstorming (the all-caps bold words are the domains the app would pertain to):
STATE
- e-voting
- paying for public transportation app (long overdue)
FINANCIAL & LIVING SPACES
- something like Venmo or Revolut
- something like imobiliare.ro or Roomigo
BUSINESSES
- agriculture ML app to detect crop sickness or predict crop output
- lending platform
- “hey, I have a venue I don’t use, you can use me, and you pay me money” type of app
SOCIAL
- skill-for-skill trading (in schools and unis first, then scale to the whole country)
- taskrabbit type of app
- one-stop-shop community app (a combination of meetup.com, events, reviews, and social media)
- restaurant reservation platform like ialoc.ro
The next question would be: out of all these apps, which is easiest to implement and has the most impact? I think the SOCIAL domain would have the best societal impact to the difficulty of implementation ratio because of fewer external barriers (like legal, political, and logistical)
For now, I think the thing with the most potential is this:
- community app (something like meetup.com, events, reviews, social media)
- skill-for-skill trading (in schools and uni first, then scale to the whole country)
- taskrabbit type of app
I may come back later to further discuss these ideas in detail. I hope this was interesting. Comment below if you have any thoughts!