Mongolia's Most Popular Social App Connects Herders, Horses

Although cowboy culture is mostly nostalgia in the United States these days, many rural Mongolians still rely on their horses in daily life. In Mongolia, horsemanship is one of the most celebrated aspects of their culture, even on social media. "If we don't have horses, we're not Mongols," a nomadic Mongolian steppe dweller named Damdinsuren told Al Jazeera. More than 3 million people live in Mongolia, including hundreds of thousands of herders.

Motherboard reported one of this sparsely populated nation’s most popular new mobile apps is called Уяач, which means “seller” and is pronounced as "uyaach.” It's a social network all about horse husbandry and racing. "We want it to become the Facebook for herders that they will use daily," Artur Byambadorj, one of the app's creators, told Motherboard.

Many rural Mongolians now use smartphones to help manage their herds, connect with distant sellers and even use mobile banking services. “Several of its top banks, including Khan Bank and XacBank, have been expanding their mobile banking services to the countryside,” international development consultant David Lawrence wrote on the World Bank blog. “This means herders won’t always have to travel to conduct financial transactions, which will make their lives a lot easier.” Plus, Twitter and other mobile apps are a great way to show off a pretty horse.

Herding can be a lucrative business in a culture where horse racing is one of the most popular sports. A Mongolian horseman named Altanochir told a Xinhuanet reporter he earns around $148,000 a year with his herd of 400 horses. He breeds them, plus hosts both local horse races and tourists. Even in urban areas and more developed communities, horse racing has seen a resurgence in popularity over the past few years.

That’s why the new Mongolian iTunes app allows users to post up to 10 photos per horse and include a whole profile for the horse, with its age, gender, race history and general information about its health. It’s already proven popular with hundreds of horse lovers across Mongolia. The app is still in beta mode. Mongolian developers told Motherboard they'd love to incorporate GPS tracking and verification features in the future, so no one gets catfished with stolen images of someone else's horse.