When 20-year-old Asha Christian tests and launches her mobile hair app, named Coily, here in Guyana on July 27th, 2019, that would not be her first venture of the kind. At fourteen, Asha and her siblings had already launched the FIVE-O police rating app which attracted significant international attention at the time. Following the launch the Christians presented the app at The Hague Netherlands, walking away with the $22,000 Euro first prize.
In 2017, Asha was instrumental in the creation of Guyana’s first National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mobile app, designed to help students ‘work’ previous examination papers. Since then, the NGSA app, which was funded by the Ministry of Education, has been used by more than 10,000 students across the country. Recently, it was upgraded to provide instant feedback and analysis on weak areas for students working on its mock exams modules.
These days, Asha has cultivated a more global, more entrepreneurial vision. Her goal is to organize the US$2.5 billion dollar ethnic hair care industry. This, however, does not include products such as hair accessories, wigs or electric styling products. In effect, the industry is actually worth much more. Think globally and the industry easily affords a US$10 billion dollar opportunity.
These days, most ethnic hair care products are imported from countries such as India and China, notwithstanding the fact that the United States represents probably the most lucrative hair care markets in the world. What Asha says she seeks to do is to help customers navigate the more than 5000 hair care options available to them.
It is common knowledge that most users of hair care products waste more than half of their purchases. In the US, the average hair care consumer is believed to have unused or discarded purchases of around $500 in value sitting on their bathroom counters, a daily reminder of the need to find effective products. The Coily App will also allow small hair product manufacturers of highly rated products, to access larger more lucrative markets. If it is successful the app. could rake in millions of dollars in revenue.
Asha explains that the choice of Guyana as the location of the launch for the Coily App is not without strategic significance. The Guyana market, she explains, though small, mimics the US ethnic market in many ways. Guyana’s diversity offers access to a wide cross-section of hair care consumers who today use many of the ethnic brands available to US consumers. Guyana’s English speaking consumers, its proximity and relationship with the US and the keen fashion sense of locals make them the perfect consumers to give the initial feedback needed to help perfect the Coily App before it is introduced to the global marketplace, Asha says. Paradoxically, Guyana’s high cost of data and storage premium on mid-tier android phones means that only the best apps will be accepted by Guyana’s consumers. This honest feedback is absolutely necessary for the global success of the Coily App.
Not only is Asha optimistic that the Coily App will yield a measure of success, she is also hoping that its launch in Guyana will enhance the country’s overall fashion profile, particularly what continues to be a growing and increasingly lucrative hair styling industry.
