MXit worth its moola

It’s more than just an application on your cellphone. It is more than just something that distracts teens from their homework. It is a brand experience. It is a lifestyle. Delia de Villiers takes a look at the MXit phenomenon.

Moola. Tradepost. Joe Banker. Slut list.

These are all concepts associated with MXit. And if you know what they are you are probably young and innovative and exactly the individual that MXit wants to target to share in this new brand experience.
MXit says they have achieved “cult status in the youth market”.

In its simplest form MXit is an instant messaging service. It runs on GPRS/3G- enabled cellphones with java support. It can also be used on computers with Adobe Flash Player. It is a service that allows its users to send and receive multimedia messages to and from other MXit-enabled cellphones and computers.
MXit is known as a form of “community software”. This is simply software that only has a function when there is more than one person using it. One of the outstanding features of MXit is that while it is about the technology it is also about the community it creates.

MXit is not a new concept. Its success can be attributed to its cornering of a certain part of the market. MXit is similar to any other form of instant messaging. The difference is that it uses a cellphone as its vehicle. Cellphone access and use in South Africa is much more prevalent than internet access and usage, according to Frieda le Roux, editor of research and product development at Die Burger. MXit is cheap and fast, unlike SMSes that take longer and are comparatively more expensive.

Uno de Waal, an independent social media and applications consultant, said in an email interview with SMF: “The community is what matters most. If you rally enough people around a niche then you’ll have a sustainable model that will keep itself running, policing itself and going forward.”

MXit is aimed at 12 to 15-year-olds, according to their website, www.mxit.co.za. De Waal says that this does not mean it excludes older people. “If a 50-year-old and his or her peer group are on MXit, they would have the same experience as someone who is 16, that is, they’d be able to chat to their friends.” MXit believes, as stated on their website, that its growth and development has not been restrained by demographics.
MXit is built around the brand, the website states.

Described by its creators as “simple, energetic, iconic and a little rebellious”, they believe the brand is something that anybody can identify with and aspire to. MXit prides itself on being in touch with its users with a special focus on “community creation”, according to the website.

The brand facilitates the building of the community. De Waal says media products are increasingly presented as a brand experience. MXit states on their website that they want to create a brand experience that everyone can identify with”.

The MXit creators believe the MXit brand demonstrates its connectedness to its users with a strong emphasis on community creation, according to their website. “It eliminates barriers enabling communities to develop, grow and interact unhindered by demographics.”

De Waal believes that MXit has been successful because it facilitates communication between people in a cheap, interesting and novel way. The MXit website states: “MXit crossed the boundaries of affordable communication and connected people across the globe.”

MXit has a registered userbase of 9 million in South Africa, according to the website www.webaddict.co.za.
It transmits 230 million messages every day. The service is distributed internationally to more than 120 countries with the largest portion of users in South Africa and Indonesia. Herman Heunis, the founder and CEO of MXit, says they hope to have 50 million international customers by the end of the year.

Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of the telecommunications research company World Wide Worx, says in an article on the website www.busrep.co.za, that the number of users does not necessarily equal revenue. He was speaking on Naspers’s 30% acqusition of MXit in January 2007.

Having Naspers as an investor has meant a great cash injection for MXit which allows them the ability to expand. Goldstuck points out that MXit can also help Naspers grow future markets because MXit’s userbase are efficient internet users, accessing it through computers and cellphones. CEO of Naspers global internet, Antonie Roux, said in a statement issued by and accessed through the website www.bizcommunity.com: “MXit has a wonderful product and an impressive entrepreneurial management team. We are delighted at the prospect of working with them.”

In the same statement Heunis said: “We are very excited about teaming up with a South African company that has such an extensive global footprint, not only in media but other technology sectors.”
Naspers also has stakes in Blueworld, Gadu, Tencent and Nimbuzz.

MXit’s vision is to be a global lifestyles communication company and they know the journey has just begun.
De Waal says MXit is still a largely under-developed application. “I’d like to see MXit be more open and allow developer applications. At the moment the experience is still very limited.”

But fear not, because MXit does not compete, it creates.