EskomSePush co-creator dishes on the app’s tongue-in-cheek name

Earlier this week, South Africa was thrown into darkness yet again as Eskom switched off the power across South Africa to save power due to a shortage of generation capacity. As this happens, South Africans around the country log onto the popular EskomSePush app which effortlessly assists users in finding out when their power is scheduled to go off. This has made it one of the most important apps on smartphones today and co-creator Dan Wells opens up on the success of the project.

Chatting to Sunday Times, co-creator Dan Wells says that the concept for the app came about when he and co-creator Herman Maritz tried to find a way to get information about the blackouts faster and easier than reading the confusing schedules the power utility shared.

So, the 30-something web developers from Cape Town explored their options. Dan explains that the app and its tongue-in-cheek name was inspired by the popularity of push notifications. “In 2014, Herman and I working in the same office building apps for banks. We had a lot of conference calls about “push notifications” and how these notifications could be used to send users banking updates,” he explains.

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Dan explains that they wanted to use this technology to help update South Africans of impending blackouts so that they can prepare for the hours without power.

However, this technology also inspired the hilarious name they gave the app. “Some of the meetings [at the banks] had folks with heavy Afrikaans accents (including Herman) and the word “push” always made our day. (The mute button on the conference equipment is very helpful for politely having a chuckle.) The name was definitely inspired by some of those banking folks, but put simply it is push notifications for Eskom: EskomSePush,” he says.

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Today, the app is incredibly successful but it’s a side project between Herman and Dan and run in their spare time. “Load-shedding is (luckily) not permanent. We both have full-time jobs as managers of technical teams, and we keep EskomSePush separate from them,” Dan explains. “We work on the app in our free time after hours. It’s our hobby.”

Dan says that he and Herman have day jobs because they chose to keep the app free and accessible to all. “We do generate money from Google ads on the app and these pay for running the servers. This helps keep our lights on while keeping the app accessible for all,” he says.

Do you use the EskomSePush app? Let Vic know in the comments section below.

Image courtesy: Esa Alexander