About us

What is Cantonica?

Simply put, Cantonica leverages an app store interface to index search results as store listings. Bringing reviews and 5-star app ratings to the open web is useful in and of itself, yet having true freedom and discoverability on mobile devices — anywhere and everywhere in the world — is truly a liberating idea.

From a practical standpoint, we hope to usher in a new era of fast iteration and deployment of new ideas and concepts on the mobile web. By avoiding the complexities of traditional app store approvals, developers can experiment with numerous different features, designs, functionalities, localizations, translations, and more — all without the anxiety that one small font change might get rejected and gum up months of planning and preparation.

Moreover, by eliminating the false choice between either developing for Android or developing for iOS, Cantonica hastens the arrival of a truly borderless mobile web. As it currently stands, apps developed in the iPhone-centric Western world often neglect Android and thus neglect wide swaths of our planet — while apps developed for the Global South oftentimes pay iOS no heed, leading to significant disconnect during a time in which we should be working together all the more.

Today is not a time or disconnect or discord — or a time for walled gardens keeping users out and profits in. Though we may be named after a casino planet in the Star Wars universe, the desire for connection, utility, and interconnectedness are not something to be gambled with by Silicon Valley plutocrats. It is an uphill journey toward the future that we envision — but rebellions are built on hope.