Facebook has launched a challenge for developers spread across the Middle East and Africa to create innovative bots in the Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge. This aligns with Facebook’s commitment to promote innovation in the Middle East and Africa by providing developers and start-ups with the tools they need to build, grow, monetize, and measure products and services.
Facebook grew out of a hacker culture and thrives by promoting innovation on new platforms. That’s why Facebook is launching the Bots for Messenger Challenge, a contest to recognize and reward developers who are able to create the most innovative new bots on Messenger.
Developers, in teams of up to three people, are invited to create bots in three categories: gaming and entertainment; productivity and utility; and social good.
The 60 finalist teams (10 per category in each region) will win a Gear VR and mobile phone, one hour of Facebook mentorship and tools and services from FbStart, a Facebook program designed to help early stage mobile start-ups build and grow their bots.
All student teams who make it to the finals will win an additional $2,000 (students will be verified against their registration via their government accredited school email accounts).
For each region, three runner-up teams (one from each category) will win $10,000 and three months of Facebook mentorship.
For each region, three winning teams (one from each category) will win $20,000 and three months of Facebook mentorship.
The submissions for the challenge opens on the morning of 15 February 2017 and the last date to submit entries is 28 April 2017.
The finalists of 30 teams each from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/North Africa will be announced on 19 May 2017 and the deadline for entries from finalists will be 2 June 2017. And, the winners be announced on 19 June 2017.
