bilai.

Bangladesh's first structured cat adoption platform.

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Inspiration

Every time my cats deliver babies, it's fun for a month. After that, the increased cat population begins to hit with more litter to clean and higher expense on cat food. I have to figure out how to put them up for adoption. First time it happened, I realised how hard it is to put cats up for adoption in Bangladesh. Three years after the first time I experienced a cat delivery, I still struggle with the process.

With no shelters to adopt cats, cat adoption in Bangladesh mainly revolves around informal Facebook groups and physical marketplaces. With a near-infinite number of Facebook groups and never-ending spam, adopting a cat through Facebook is difficult for adopters and people listing cats alike, particularly beginners. The physical marketplaces — Katabon for instance — are avoided by pet lovers because of animal abuse; they lock up cats inside of tiny cages.

Cats are the most popular pets in Bangladesh, and the number of cat owners has tripled over the last three years. Bilai is an app that aims to connect the adopters and pet parents in the burgeoning cat adoption landscape in Bangladesh. We want Bilai to make the cat adoption landscape in Bangladesh more streamlined and easier to navigate.

Features

  • Explore pets to adopt: A clean grid of cards with pets available for adoption.
  • Put cats up for adoption: A simple form on which owners can submit a picture of their pet, age, breed, and location.
  • WhatsApp Connection: Each card features a single button that opens a WhatsApp conversation with the owner instantly. We chose WhatsApp because of the platform's widespread adoption in the country.

How we built it

  • Frontend: Built using Next.js, ReactJS, and Tailwind CSS for a fast and responsive user interface.
  • Authentication: Implemented using NextAuth.
  • Database & ORM: Powered by PostgreSQL managed with Prisma.
  • Integrations: Utilized direct wa.me links to integrate the WhatsApp API, making communication simple and accessible for everyone in Bangladesh.

Challenges we ran into

  • Design Learning Curve: Our designer learned Figma specifically for this project, which came with a steep learning curve.
  • Version Control: It was our first time collaborating using GitHub. We had to navigate merge conflicts and learn how to avoid them.
  • Production Deployment: We ran into production build errors on Vercel right before submission that were completely ignored by our local development build.

Where will Bilai be next?

Within two weeks:

  • Login with Google and Facebook + email verification
  • Location fields capturing specific locality and city
  • User profile pages displaying the number of previous cats and currently owned cats
  • Dedicated detail pages for individual cats when cards are clicked
  • Expanded listing options for vaccination history, spay/neuter status, temperament, and rehoming reason
  • Status toggles for listing cats as Available, Pending, or Adopted
  • Image hosting using Supabase
  • Search bar with filters for breed, age, and region
  • V1 official launch

Within a month:

  • English-Bangla language toggle
  • Dark mode theme support
  • Reporting system to counter spam
  • Dedicated admin and moderator dashboard
  • Built-in chat system to replace external WhatsApp dependency
  • Saved/bookmarked cats feature
  • Rate-limiting users to adding a maximum of one cat per day
  • National ID or school ID card verification for rehoming listings

Long-term goals:

  • Streamline and revolutionize pet adoption across Bangladesh.
  • Expand into neighboring countries facing similar challenges, such as India, Pakistan, and Nepal.

Built With

  • figma
  • nextauth
  • nextjs
  • react
  • tailwind
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