Boy Thohir’s Umma Startup Releases Audio-Based Da’wah Features

A Muslim community-based application provider startup, Khazanah Prima Sukses (Umma), recorded a surge in users during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This startup, which is partly owned by the President Director of Adaro Energy Garibaldi Thohir or Boy Thohir, has also released an audio podcast-based da’wah feature, uVoice.

The Co-Founder and CEO of Umma Indra Wiralaksmana assessed that the potential for this feature to attract users is quite large, especially during Ramadan. This is because many Muslim communities are looking for da’wah content on various platforms during the fasting month.

Alvara’s research in 2019 also shows that 78% of Muslims in Indonesia still use ustaz and ulama as their main sources of religious information.

“So, we made uVoice as a way to support the Muslim community in finding da’wah content,” said Indra during a virtual press conference, Thursday (15/4).

Helping Muslim Content Creators Expand the Reach of Da’wah

In addition, this new feature is considered to be able to help preachers and Muslim content creators or content creators to expand the reach of da’wah. This feature presents podcast content services from various preachers, communities, mosques to content creators.

uVoice is supported by more than 100 podcasters such as Ustaz Hanan Attaki, Ustaz Fikri Haikal MZ, Ustaz Taufik Al Miftah, Rigen Rakelna, Amritsa Raje, Zein Permana, and Imas Karyamah. The amount of content available reaches 300.

Umma divides the content on uVoice into four parts, namely Islamic studies, murottal Al-Qur’an, mosques, and non-study topics such as the Muslim lifestyle.

Indra said that podcasters can get exposure and build a wider community through this feature. Umma also facilitates the infaq feature on the uVoice channel of each podcaster.

Last year, Umma launched a live streaming feature that offers Islamic studies through an application. During Ramadan 2020, there are 10 thousand users who watch this live streaming study.

In addition, Umma provides features to read the Al-Qur’an, prayer schedules, and Qibla direction. Before Ramadan, Inda said that the number of users had increased during the corona pandemic. As of March 2021, the Umma application was downloaded by more than 10.8 million users.

This number has increased by around 3.8 million compared to September 2020. “It has grown significantly during this pandemic,” said Indra.

Last year, Sandiaga Uno, who is now Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, said that applications such as Umma were targeting a potential market because the majority of Indonesia’s population was Muslim.

The total population of Indonesian Muslims is 12.7% of the total Muslim population in the world. Meanwhile, the Muslim population is estimated to reach 27.5% of the world’s total population in 2030.

“Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population,” said Sandiaga last year (8/9/2020). “Now talking about the blue ocean strategy, not only playing in a small niche.”

Launching uClass, Learning Religion in the Umma Application is Easier

A few months ago, Umma, a Muslim community and lifestyle platform, just launched a new feature called uClass. This feature is an e-learning tool to make it easier for users to learn religious knowledge.

According to Umma, uClass comes with a comprehensive curriculum and interactive features. According to the CEO and Co-Founder of Umma, Indra Wiralaksaman, the presence of uClass is a form of Umma’s commitment to help the Indonesian Muslim community become the best people.

“With uClass, we believe we can help people become better and more productive Muslims. Moreover, people now have an increasing religious need,” he said in an official statement received, Tuesday (8/9/2020).

Later, through this uClass, Indra said Umma users can start learning to read the Koran to various other topics. To make it easier, the learning experiences offered are also linked.

Furthermore, it was stated that the speakers in uClass can organize classrooms, upload class materials and videos, including assignments for the participants. They can also do live streaming, create forums and hold discussions.