MXit achieves over 14 million users

Herman Heunis, founder and CEO of MXit said: “We operate in an extremely dynamic market that sets innovation at the very core of its business. We believe that growth and continued success pivots upon the ability to read our users... We understand that we can't adopt a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to the various international markets, because different cultures, trends and communications landscapes demand different tactics and strategy.”

Already one of the larger mobile global instant messengers, the company's sights are firmly set on increasing its international expansion by increasing its in-country operations to areas that are strategic, financially viable and where there is an opportunity to provide users with mobile features that enhance their lifestyles. The company has already signed strategic alliances and rolled out operations in Indonesia, where it has already amassed over 1.3 million users, as well as the Philippines, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and its own backyard - the African continent.

Blendit for download

Recently MXit expanded its offering to users by launching a PC client competition to launch the MXit Development Zone community, which will allow budding developers the opportunity to create applications that can be downloaded and tested by fellow users. The winner of the PC Client competition, C Stranex, created an application called Blendit - a lightweight application that runs on both Windows and Linux. The application is available for download at devzone.mxit.com.

Users send approximately 35 000 messages per second during peak times and it has a community that visits the system more than 20 million times per day. The small innovations team, of less than 40 software engineers that drive MXit, wants to position it within a massively expanding social networking global market. The number of people accessing the Internet via their mobile phones has increased by 74% over the last two years. This, coupled with a global explosion of social networking, creates a naturally amiable environment for Mxit's expansion.

Preparation strategy

“The African market remains very attractive for us because we can see our platform offering the most value to populations that need cost-effective communications most. Mobile social networking and instant messaging is virtually non-existent in most regions. This presents a good opportunity for MXit to revolutionise mobile social networking across the African continent, where there is already a fairly big appetite for social networking, especially in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya. We are especially interested in developing our relationships with NGOs in the various African regions,” said Heunis.

“There is potential for MXit to become a major driver in assisting governments and NGOs in their education efforts at all levels, not only in traditional education initiatives, but also in communicating programmes for HIV/AIDS, health, agricultural and many such campaigns,” he added.

“We plan to continue to evolve in order to solidify our international presence. Our intention is very simple - we want to become one of the biggest mobile social network and IMs, and we want to do this by offering features, innovations and services that make a difference in the way that our users live, work and play,” he concluded.