Motribe hits half-a-million milestone
21 Jan 2011
It's been only four months since the launch of Motribe and already the mobile social networking platform has reached a significant milestone. As of late last night, Thursday, 20 January 2011, the South African startup now has just over 500 000 registered users. Since launch, Motribe has had over 30 million page impressions per month, 60 000 blog posts and 58% active users (over 30 days).
"Every day we get closer to the tipping point and it feels unbelievably exciting. To see something you made start to grow like that is both humbling and inspiring," says Vincent Maher, technical co-founder of Motribe.
Next generation mobile websites
Launched on 13 September 2010, Motribe allows users to build and manage their own mobile social communities, referred to by co-founder Nic Haralambous as "social mobisites". "Social mobisites are the next generation of mobile website and they incorporate all the engagement power of social networking into a single branded experience," he asserts.
"Every time a brand launches a campaign mobisite they have to reinvent the wheel," says Maher. "They waste time and money relearning the basics before they even start approaching the end goal: a platform that keeps their customers and brand fans engaged. Motribe takes all that pain away."
"A good benchmark of engagement is how many pages a user views when they visit a site and how often they come back. We have found that by adding social elements to a campaign site, people are up to five times more engaged," adds Haralambous.
Digital service industry - a "world upside-down"
Maher and Haralambous are confident about the company's position in the market, referring to the current digital service industry as a "world upside-down". Too many brands are paying "school fees" for their digital agencies instead of spending money acquiring users, believes Maher.
According to the latest statistics released by Motribe, the service is now serving over a million page views a day and its users have sent over seven million messages.
Motribe stats since 13 September 2010
- Page impressions per month: just over 30 million
- Registered users: just over 500 000
- Active users (over 30 days): 58%
- Private messages sent: just over 7 000 000
- Chat messages: ±40 000 a day
- Photo uploads: just over 50 000
- Photo comments: just over 130 000
- Blog posts: just over 60 000
- Blog comments: just over 140 000
In December 2010, Motribe was selected by Praekelt as one of the platforms for the Guinness VIP football campaign in Nigeria. This represents one of the largest media investments into the mobile web in Africa to date.
"Motribe has become a vital component in Praekelt's large-scale mobile campaigns in Africa. We especially appreciate the deep social features that make it simple for our brands to communicate with their target markets," says Gustav Praekelt, CEO of Praekelt.
About Sindy Peters: Africa editor
Sindy Peters (@sindy_hullaba_lou) is a group editor at Bizcommunity.com on the Construction & Engineering, Energy & Mining, and Property portals. She can be reached at moc.ytinummoczib@ydnis.
