Despite the health crisis in recent months, on-demand service app MyKuya has announced it will now be expanding beyond Metro Manila and into provinces such as Cavite, Pangasinan, Quezon, and Zambales.
The mobile app will be available initially in bigger cities, concentrating in places that are likeliest to see the highest demand. The app said services that will be available will vary across the board, but provincial users can expect to have access to many of its most popular services.
Cities such as Lucena and Olongapo, for example, can have their groceries delivered and even hire a personal assistant on a motorbike. In Cavite City, Dasmariñas, and General Trias, users can hire handymen like electricians, plumbers, and carpenters for in-house repairs.
The MyKuya team said the expansion can set the stage for eventual expansion into both Visayas and Mindanao, where the company believes the potential to generate opportunities is huge.
The expansion is also part of its new franchise program, which aims to support businesses by giving them a platform to augment and maximize the efficiency for their employees. The BizHelper feature, for instance, is a way to hire someone to assist in small tasks for a business.
According to MyKuya country head Dennis Bunye, the first few days of Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) back in late March saw an unprecedented increase in demand.
“Nabigla talaga kami sa pagdami ng users,” Bunye recalled. “It was unlike anything we’d seen before. We had to work on the weekends just to keep up and some of us nakitulog pa sa office.”
Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, Bunye said MyKuya was all too happy to provide whatever help they could. Thanks to the app, many who were stuck indoors were able to safely order essentials like groceries and medicine without any hassle.
The app’s existence has also benefited many of those who were left unemployed by the pandemic. Bunye notes that an online job fair hosted by MyKuya saw as many as 1,000 job-seekers in just 45 minutes.
MyKuya was even able to onboard over 7,000 new kuyas and ates during the ECQ period alone, many of whom were contractual workers that came from hard-hit industries like restaurants and tourism.
“Here at MyKuya, we’ve always believed in providing meaningful employment,” Bunye said, referring to its goal of creating one million jobs in the Philippines by 2022. “Yun yung reason why the company was started. We believe kahit sino can take part in solving a societal ill like underemployment and MyKuya is just our way of doing that.”
