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"Bo jio" is the quintessentially Singlish word to show that Singaporeans are still social animals.

Recently, three Singaporean students have recently developed a smartphone app, JIO, which makes it easier for users to organise events.

From simple lunches involving a small group of friends to larger company functions, JIO requires the event’s creator to input just four simple details: What? When? Where? Who? The app then automatically notifies invited guests of the event, regardless of whether they have had it installed themselves.

Source: Justjiome.me

Our reaction to these features?

Source: Mothership ("17 Singlish words that offer so much more than their English equivalents")

Invitees do not need to install JIO in order to respond, although their choices of response are limited to two options: either a celebratory ‘Steady’ or ruthless ‘CMI (cannot make it)’ – there is simply no space for fence-sitting.

Source: Mothership ("17 Singlish words that offer so much more than their English equivalents")

How is it different from other event-facilitating platforms (Doodle and Facebook)?

Geoffrey Goh, one of JIO’s co-founders said that “Doodle forms are a pain to fill”, while his Facebook friends hardly check event invitations.

JIO notifies invitees who have not installed the app directly via SMS, so one can be absolutely sure of getting responses. In other words, really kan cheong (keyed up) organisers can keep sending reminders to their invitees until responses are received.

Kan Cheong spider

Source: Mothership ("50 insults/retorts only Singaporeans will get")

How did Jio start?

Conceived over bowls of Vietnamese noodles at Nam Nam Restaurant, it is the brainchild of three 24-year-old Singapore Management University (SMU) students.

In other words, the best ideas come from bo liao eating sessions.

Source: Mothership ("50 insults/retorts only Singaporeans will get")

Goh acknowledges his alma mater’s role in encouraging him to learn new technologies quickly. “The three of us never had much programming experience prior to university, but SMU focuses heavily on ‘learning by doing’, so we had to explore a bit in order to do well in our projects.”

For now, Goh confesses that having to balance full-time studies with managing the app is an arduous task. But he is not cutting corners in improving the app, which has already been installed over 4,000 times, and expanding its user base.

JIO’s co-founders are applying for government grants to further develop their app and eventually woo corporate clients. But the monetisation of JIO is not an immediate priority for Goh, who is keen to beef up on the app’s features and value for users.

“The Singapore app scene is growing, but I feel that a large number of them are still very focused on making people view advertisements rather than actually building something that people would have a good reason to use,” he said, who is confident that JIO’s stylish, simple, and Singlish-laden interface would earn it many local fans.

Unless, of course, many Singaporeans decide to fly aeroplane (does not turn up for an event despite accepting its invitation).

Source: Mothership ("16 terms that are gibberish in English but have rich meaning in Singlish")

But that problem is for another app to solve.

JIO is free and is available on both the Play Store and App Store.

Top photo from here.

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