Brand Protection & Logistics Platform
Fiti.info
A comprehensive brand protection and logistics service trusted by Oxford University Press. Combats counterfeit goods by generating unique PINs that validate authenticity through WhatsApp bot and SMS.
The Problem
In Kenya, counterfeit goods have become a major challenge, particularly in the publishing industry. Fake books flood the market, undermining legitimate publishers and depriving authors of their rightful earnings. Consumers often unknowingly purchase counterfeit books, receiving substandard quality while supporting illegal operations. There was no reliable, accessible way for consumers to verify the authenticity of products before or after purchase.
The Solution
Fiti is a comprehensive brand protection and logistics platform that generates unique PINs placed at the back of books. Each PIN is paired with a specific book, creating a secure verification system. Users can scratch the PIN and send it via WhatsApp bot or SMS to instantly validate whether their book is authentic.
✓ Real Book Verification
Authentic books show verification details, book information, and confirmation of legitimacy.
⚠ Fake Book Detection
Counterfeit books trigger an immediate alert and create a detailed report for publishers to track fraud.
WhatsApp Bot Integration
Technologies Used
Backend
- Elixir
- Phoenix LiveView
- PostgreSQL
- TimescaleDB (Timeseries)
Integrations
- WhatsApp API
- SMS Gateway
- Telegram Bot
Challenges & Solutions
The Challenge
Managing PINs at scale was one of the biggest technical challenges. A single order could contain 500,000 to 1 million unique PINs. Traditional database approaches would struggle with such massive volumes, leading to slow queries, storage inefficiencies, and performance degradation as the data grew.
How We Overcame It
Timeseries Database Architecture
We converted the PINs table to a timeseries table using TimescaleDB. This architecture is optimized for handling massive volumes of time-ordered data, making it perfect for PIN generation, storage, and retrieval. Timeseries tables provide automatic partitioning, compression, and query optimization.
Query Optimization
We implemented optimized queries using indexes, batch processing, and efficient data structures. PIN lookups now happen in milliseconds even with millions of records, and bulk PIN generation for large orders is handled efficiently without blocking the system.
Impact
Fiti.info is now trusted by Oxford University Press and other major publishers to protect their products. The platform has successfully:
- ✓Enabled instant verification of millions of books
- ✓Provided accessible verification through WhatsApp and SMS
- ✓Generated detailed reports on counterfeit products
- ✓Scaled to handle massive PIN volumes efficiently