Chiya Connect,and acommunity mapof Nepal

Most social media keeps you on your phone. Chiya Connect is built the other way round: it exists to get a group of friends to the same table at the same tea shop, and then give them a reason to look up from the screen. We call it anti-social social media, because the point is the people sitting next to you.

What Chiya Connect does

Aaja ko chiya kasko? Everyone at the table plays the same short game on their own phone, and the loser buys the next round. The app is free on iPhone and Android, and it is built by Ek Ra Sunya Inc.

• The Round: five questions drawn from a bank of 800 questions about Nepal, with a new category each round.
• Bagh-Chal and other games: play a friend with a join code, or play the computer.
• Places: check in at a tea shop, see its regulars, and read its menu and reviews. Location is checked once at check-in and is not stored.
• The Tab: a running record of who bought last and who owes. No money passes through the app.

Why it matters for local businesses

Every check-in puts a real Nepali cafe or restaurant in front of the people most likely to walk in. Tea shops and restaurants that appear in Chiya Connect will help seed our Local Business Directory, so a listing is built from places people actually visit, not from a list we typed up. For owners, a point-of-sale system for tea shops, Connect for Biz, is in testing with its first shops.

Get the app: Chiya Connect on the App Store or Chiya Connect on Google Play.

Next: a community map of Nepal

Directions in Nepal often fail where people need them most: the gali behind the temple, the shop that moved last year, the landmark everyone uses that no map knows. Together with Ek Ra Sunya Inc, we are working toward a map of Nepal built and corrected by the communities who live here.

• Accurate local directions, corrected by people on the ground.
• Local business listings that stay current, connected to the directory.
• Free map access for Nepali startups building for local needs, so a small team does not have to pay a foreign provider before it has a single customer.

This is a target, not a launch. As with everything we publish, it stays a goal until there is a measured result to show, and we will report progress here as it happens. If you want to help map your area or test early versions, get in touch.