A screenshot from Hush, which allows users to post anonymous messages. PHOTO/ NEX
A Yangon-based startup is bringing Myanmar’s rumour-mill into the digital age, with a social network for users to anonymously post personal and political thoughts, gripes and questions.
Hush, a mobile phone app which allows users to sign up with just a phone number, has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, mostly by people in Yangon, since its launch in November.
Ye Myat Min, the 24-year-old founder and CEO of NEX, which secured $150,000 in funding last year, said the app was developed to appeal to those wary of using their real identity on a public online forum like Facebook or Twitter.
“We were very much frustrated with the inability to speak freely on Facebook,” Ye Myat Min said in an email.
“There are so many things that I wouldn’t want to share on Facebook: my distaste with a brand, something that I don’t like about a friend, personal opinion on political situation.”
In February, a Myanmar journalist was arrested after posting a satirical rendering of a 1971 battle between the army and China-backed communist rebels.
Un-friending, or blocking a friend’s account, over political differences, has been rife among Myanmar Facebook users in recent months, as tensions have ramped up ahead of elections planned for November, he added.
Posts on Hush range from the jovial – restaurant recommendations, #TGIF statuses – to the controversial.
“Hushes that we are seeing include political topics, social reports, traffic reports, love and life, education, health and questions that you cannot ask on Facebook or anywhere else,” said Ye Myat Min.
One user posted a disturbing image of what appeared to be sexual harassment: a creepy masked man publicly masturbating from a window.
According to the founder, the app has more than 10,000 users, the majority in Yangon but others in Mandalay, Naypyidaw and countries with large Burmese populations including Singapore and Thailand.
There are both Android and IoS versions, and the app works best with Ooredoo and Tenelor.
