MXit targets smartphones

Published Nov 10, 2011

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SA social networking company MXit says it is to target middle class Africa with an aggressive push into smartphone applications.

MXit was recently acquired by World of Avatar, an investment company founded by Alan Knott-Craig Jr, who took over as CEO of the instant messaging company from Herman Heunis, the company's creator.

Speaking at the 14th annual AfricaCom conference in Cape Town on Thursday, David Weber, COO of MXit, highlighted the company's continued growth with 44 million registered users, 50,000 new registered users each day, with 24 billion recorded messages each month.

He noted that 70% of votes for the recent singing competition, Idols, were generated through the MXit platform.

With the bulk of Mxit's users consisting of younger people, Weber said that the company would look to move into the middle class segment over the next 12-36 months, targeting not only SA, but the rest of Africa.

“We want to be aggressive in Africa,” Weber said, pointing to connectivity up the aspirational path into smartphones. He said that while it was on the group's “radar” to extend past Africa into other developing markets, “for now we love Africa,” he said.

He conceded that MXit's smartphone offering “isn't the best in the world,” but stressed that a mere 1% of its customer base owned a smart device, with the rest owning a feature phone.

“We do cater to a different crew,” Weber said, pointing out that on android devices, data costs could be accrued quite quickly.

He said that messaging service WhatsApp was “eating our lunch,” but quickly added “watch this space,” without elaborating further.

In an earlier presentation delivered by Eric Hersman, co-founder of Kenya based Ushahidi, he noted that Africa's middle class, at 313 million, represented 34% of the population.

Gareth Vorster was hosted at the AfricaCom conference by Ericsson. - I-Net Bridge

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