My Business: She was tired of Dubai friendship plans going nowhere - so she built a her own women-only app to fix it
Dubai: Mercy Joyce, 29, has lived in Dubai since 2020, and like most newcomers to the city, she joined every women's Facebook group and community chat she could find. The plans were always the same story - enthusiastic messages, plenty of "we should do this sometime" and then nothing. That recurring letdown became the idea behind JaneJane, a women-only app she launched in July this year, where…
Dubai-based Mercy Joyce, 29, had grown tired of the lackluster attempts to form friendships in the city. The plans always seemed to fizzle out within women-only Facebook groups and chats. Determined to create a solution, Joyce launched an app called JaneJane in July. The app allows women aged 18 and above to create or join real-life hangouts like coffee dates, workout classes, and co-working sessions.
Joyce paid for the app's development out of her savings, hiring a freelance developer and using AI for design. The app is currently free to download and browse, with a Dh30 commitment fee for reserving a spot in a hangout and a Dh30 monthly subscription for those who want to create unlimited hangouts. Joyce hopes the app will reduce no-shows and create more reliable hangouts for users.
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