- M4Jam is a crowd-sourcing platform that pays you for small tasks that include providing data or answering surveys for big corporations.
- The company equips jobbers with training in order to match the experience required by big local companies.
- Jobbers get connected to private sector corporations such as Cell C, Tiger Brands, and Anglo American.
- Depending on the tasks completed, you can earn between R100 and R10,000 a month, and earnings are paid out in less than a week for small tasks.
M4Jam is a technology platform that gives unemployed individuals a chance to make a quick buck for answering surveys or providing data and information to big corporations on specific products or communities.
The company provides jobbers – unemployed individuals – with training and work tasks when big companies, organisations, or government entities need small tasks completed.
These tasks include individuals finding out what products local retailers or Spaza shops buy, or for instance, a mine that needs to engage with a local community, but struggles to reach it.
"We are trying to empower people that do not have easy access to connectivity. They don't have a laptop, most of them don't have email addresses or bank accounts, but they do have a phone.
"We use that piece of technology in their hand and to empower them," said CEO Georgia Midgley.
This allows jobbers to make a quick buck on the platform, earn all their income or even make an additional income. According to Midgley, jobbers can make between R100 and R100,000 a month depending on the tasks completed.
Currently the platform has under a million jobbers registered for tasks on the platform, 65% of whom are female and almost 90% under the age of 35 – 54% of the users are unemployed.
According to Midgley, what sets M4Jam apart is the speed with which they provide information to clients. "The fasted job we have ever done took five and a half minutes.
"Instead of crowd sourcing or sending guys in cars to every Checkers across the country, we do it in a weekend because we pay that person to go to the store to collect that data for us," she said.
The idea was executed in 2016 when the DNI Group, a niche investment company in the retail, telecommunications, distribution and technology sectors, bought the platform from its former founders who launched it in 2014.
The group changed the focus and built a training platform that underpins everything the new M4Jam stands for – selling information for money.
So far, M4Jam has worked with big corporations, NGOs and government. The company's private sector clients include Cell C, Tiger Brands, and Anglo American, among others.
Bringing opportunities in rural areas
According to Midgley, since people are leaving rural areas for better opportunities in the city, the platform had an obligation to stop migrant labour by bringing those jobs to them.
The company provides jobs largely in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Eastern Cape regions.
"It's not that we can't help the underemployed or those that need to make some extra money. As an organisation we feel we can have a greater impact on the unemployed," she said.
Award winning tech solution
In March this year, the company won the World Summit Awards – in the category for smart and urban settlements.
"We were identified by the United Nations… as a technology that helps the world – we're the global winner. That was massive for us because the power of crowd sourcing is incredible," said Midgley.
The company was also recently ranked in the top 20 gig economy platforms in the world for protecting temporary and contract workers from the impact of Covid-19.
"We believe our magic is the fact that we are a corporate entity but we have a massive social impact.
"Yes, I collect data for Tiger brands at speeds which you cannot do yourself but my magic is the fact that I'm empowering a local community to collect that information and helping put food on the table," said Midgley.
