A part of daily life 'our calendar'

Nepal's big 'IT companies' or 'IT products' that meet local needs can be counted on fingers. These apps include eSeva, Connect IPS, Khalti, Citizen App, Ncell App, Ludo, Callbreak etc. One name that cannot be missed in this list is 'Hamro Patro'.

Started as an alternative to the hassle of carrying a calendar or pocket calendar and remembering Nepali dates, this app has now been downloaded on more than 20 million devices. Made by Nepalis and counted among the most used apps in Nepal on a daily basis. The most downloaded foreign apps in Nepal include WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook, Messenger, TikTok, Capcut, Shareit, Instagram, Free Fire, Snapchat, etc. Among the 50 most downloaded apps in Nepal recently in Similar Web's list that counts the traffic (users) of websites and applications, Nepali apps are eSeva, Our Calendar, Our Nepali Keyboard, Pocket, Citizen App and Ncell.

Shankar Upreti, who has worked for three years in Silicon Valley, California, which is considered to be the center of world information technology, has given direct employment to more than 100 people in Nepal. 15 astrologers and around 400 doctors who have joined the app have also got an indirect employment or 'side hustle' option from our calendar.

Calendars provided by banks and financial institutions, bookstores and other offices are still hanging on the walls of some houses. But how long has it been since you stopped going to the market to buy a calendar? Even the 'Gen G' generation will be shocked to hear that people used to carry 12-page calendars on their backs. However, they also carry calendars in their pockets. The difference is this - before the printed calendar was carried, now it is 'digital'. Along with the

calendar, another feature that the young generation uses a lot in this app is Kundali. Shankar said that 4 to 5 lakh Kundlis are made every month from this app. "This is an interesting number," he said, "Especially young people seem to make kundli and match each other's qualities by making kundli." Some even complain that even after getting married by matching horoscopes, there is a fight later.''

Shankar is the first person to digitize the Hindu Panchang or Nepal's Bikram Samvat calendar. He digitized the Nepali calendar in 2010. There are so many digital calendars available on the Appstore and Playstore now, with plenty of downloadable options to choose from. However, Shankar's 'Hamro Patro' is the common choice of most Nepalis. This is not a guess, the data shows - 20 million downloads, 1.8 million daily active users, users spend an average of 10 minutes once they open the app.

A pair of white moons and suns in red spheres. There are more than 40 services within the app with these two symbols that reflect nationality and locality. From latest news to how to make sweet recipes, scan and pay to recharge facility is available in the app. Physicians and astrologers meet at the same place. Do you listen to the radio first thing in the morning or watch horoscopes? Service can be availed according to choice. Information about the price of vegetables and gold and silver to bank interest rates is also kept in this app. Due to these various services, our calendar has become part of the daily life of common people.

'We also want to add communication features like user to user call and end to end chat to the app, but it will take some time,' said Shankar from our office in Nevada, USA through WhatsApp, 'We are bringing the feature to personalize the app in the next month. We are going to introduce a feature where users can see only the services they want and hide other services because there are many things in one place.' Not limited to calendar, it has transformed itself into a super app. Various features are available in this app in one package. China's WeChat, America's Amazon and Indonesia's Gojek are examples of successful super apps. Started as a messaging platform, WeChat is the world's leading super app. It has 1.3 billion monthly active users.

Employees working at the office of 'Hamro Patro' in Siphal, Kathmandu. Photo: Deepak KC/Kantipur

In China, messaging, social networking, mobile payment, food delivery, transport booking and some government services can also be taken through WiChat. Our calendar is also trending towards becoming a super app like WiChat. For this, the company has already partnered with various businesses and has prepared its own payment system, facility to send funds from abroad, and an internal ecosystem such as online shopping. In 2010, through calendar, forex, date change, Nepali dictionary, the company launched our remit in 2021 and our pay wallet in 2023. Along with this, services like our astrology, our health, our gift, our mart are included in the app.

An interesting story is that although the company keeps everything under 'ours', the official name of the company is 'Smart Idea Pvt Ltd'. According to the company directive, 2072, because of the rule that pronouns cannot be used in the name of the company (my, our, your, etc.) "Initially, I thought of naming the app as Nepali Calendar, but it seemed like a generic word," Shankar said, "As it is an app that can be used by everyone, it was finally named as our calendar on the advice of friends."

The managing director of the company, Sudina Gautam, informed that an average of Rs. She said that the facility to send remittances through our app is currently only available in 32 US states and Australia. Sudina, who is busy with accounting and year review at the end of the financial year, says that they are focused on increasing the use of the 'features' in the app. According to him, our pay wallet, which was launched a year ago, currently has only 3 lakh users, our mart is also in its initial stages, and there is room to add users to telehealth and astrology services.

'From looking at horoscopes every morning to small units such as mobile recharge and date conversion, even for the purpose of sending money from abroad to Nepal, Nepalis from abroad have been using our app,' Managing Director Gautam said, 'everyone's daily life is easier even if it is a little bit. Our app is preferred because it has been created. It has also connected Nepali people around the world with their culture in an emotional way.'' He claimed that it was a matter to be resolved.

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Targeting Nepalis abroad' Shankar, who went to America for higher education in 2008, took a wall calendar with him. At that time, a calendar was mandatory in the luggage of all Nepalis going abroad. With the beginning of the new year, the calendar that Shankar took from Nepal became 'date expired'. As this problem of printed calendar was repeated every year, he thought of making the calendar digital. Our calendar was born with that thought. "This is an app I made for purely personal purposes," he said. It took three months to make this app.' After creating the

app, Shankar stuck it on the MacBook. Coincidentally, at that time Apple's recently released app marketplace 'Appstore' was in the news. From 500 apps in 2008 and 500,000 apps in 2010, it is estimated that there are more than 1.8 million apps now. Shankar published 'Hamro Patro' on the App Store in 2010 for $99. At that time, there was no practice of making apps for anything like it is now. Google Playstore was not even released. Shankar renewed the app by adding the facility of converting date and also providing information about foreign regulations (Forex) to make it easier for Nepalese abroad.

"There was no source of income, it was difficult to pay 99 dollars to a student," he remembers, "In 2012, Google released the Play Store, and I published our calendar on it as well." On the other hand, the number of people carrying Android phones increased in Nepal. In 2013, the app was downloaded on 100,000 devices. Until then, Shankar had started earning from the app through Google Ads. He remembers being very excited after receiving $10 on the first day of 'monetization'. The company currently earns income through advertising along with commissions. Takes commission from astrologers and healers. Shankar released our Nepali keyboard in 2014. Many people have preferred this feature of being able to write in Nepali on mobile. Now our keyboard downloads are more than 10 million on google play alone.

The app, which was originally launched for the convenience of Nepalis living abroad to connect Nepalis living abroad with their customs and culture, to keep them emotionally attached to the motherland, has gradually become more popular within Nepal. Shankar, who upgraded our calendar at first by himself, then by hiring an employee, started finding the small needs of Nepali people's daily life and incorporating them into the app. As a result, his app became more and more original.

In 2015, Shankar decided to become an entrepreneur after leaving a lucrative job as a principal engineer at Symantec Enterprise in Silicon Valley. Since then he has been fully devoted to the promotion of our calendar. They have set a journey to make the app a super app by opening offices in both Nepal and America. To increase the 'engagement' of users in the app, the app has been converted into Nepali, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Doteli and Bajjika languages ​​along with news content, adding horoscopes, Nepali and English. Currently more than 500 radios and more than 92 newsportals are connected to our calendar app.

'If you are a little late in placing your horoscope in the morning, you will receive calls in the office throughout the day,' says Sudina, the managing director of the company, 'even though we aggregate news from various media, users read it as news from our calendar. Perhaps this is our success. Not only Sudina, but also experts in the field of technology, which are essential for everyday life and are of interest to the general public, is to make the topics such as gold and silver prices, exchange rates, date converters, horoscopes, etc. easily usable by ordinary literate people. They have been saying that it is the basis of growth.