Welcome screen

Inspiration

When traveling abroad, we usually buy a prepaid sim card to check important information or keep contact with our family. However, if we ran out of credit with prepaid and could not find a way to recharge it, we must feel very anxious. Therefore, we would like to design a solution that would help people to top up prepaid sim cards easily by a quick response chatbot system. This solution is applicable for, not only travelers but also in case of people under lockdown during the COVID-19 epidemic.

What it does

People just need to choose the telecom and enter the phone number they want to top up through the chatbot. After payment, the system will top up automatically.

Topupwise connected more than two hundred telecoms around the world and could process the transaction in a few seconds. Moreover, we have two features:

After users enter the phone numbers, our system could help check whether the phone number is valid to the corresponding telecom in order to reduce the chance users input a wrong phone number.
We support lots of payment methods. People could choose the most feasible way to make the payment.

How I built it

The solution is built out of several components. We built a chatbot application that displays different top-up options in the most user-friendly way. Moreover, the system of topupwise integrated third-party payment gateway API and API among all telecoms.

We also build a notification module. After topping up successfully, the system would notify the user by the chatbot and the email. If things wouldn't work out, the system will notify the admin to check problems.

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest challenges we ran into was the stability. Telecoms might be under maintenance or unknown reasons to stop the service without any prior notice. We are planning to build a monitor system to check the status of Telecoms' service. Then, we will have the ability to notice our customers in advance. For now, we offer a full refund if the system could not finish the transaction in 20 mins.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are very proud that we built the solution in such a short period of time, and made both frontend and backend functional. More importantly, topupwise did help lots of people under lockdown during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Our first user was Taiwanese who worked in Philippines. Because of the lockdown, he could not buy a prepaid phone card from CVS. It was our service to help him keep in contact with his family. During this difficult time, we have helped hundreds of people.

What I learned

We learned that a simple service could have a huge impact on consumption patterns. Lots of our customers used to buy prepaid phone cards in physical stores. Because of our service, they even stop visiting these stores twice a month. We realized that we have more potential to combine other services together.

What's next for Topupwise

We plan to expand our solution. We might be able to help people pay utility bills and buy some gift cards for their families. Furthermore, we also take international money transfer into consideration. It will be a long journey for our team.