Mxit’s growth in Africa is accelerating despite facing increased competition from services such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and Whattsapp. This is according to Mxit CEO Alan Knott-Craig junior.
Knott-Craig said that while Mxit’s growth in South Africa has flattened out, the growth in the rest of the continent is accelerating.
Mxit currently has over 12.5 million active customers internationally (users who used the service over the last 12 weeks), and the company is confident this figure will increase.
Knott-Craig said that one of the biggest advantages of Mxit, and hence a contributing factor to its growth, is that the platform can be used on any handset. “Mxit works on feature phones, iOS, Android, BB, and WP7,” said Knott-Craig.
BBM currently only works on BlackBerry devices, and Whattsapp is only available on iOS and Android. “You want to be able to speak to all your mates, regardless of their device,” said Knott-Craig.
Mxit has over 140,000 Android users in South Africa and over 1.2 million subscribers using BlackBerry smartphones.
Knott-Craig said that the content available on Mxit, which includes games, music and skins, is another driving force behind its continued growth.
Alan Knott-Craig Jnr
Mxit finances
Knott-Craig said earlier this year that Mxit’s “consolidated revenue in 2011 was just over R100 million. The consolidated bottom line was a loss.”
Knott-Craig is upbeat about Mxit’s finances in 2012. “The last few months have seen a dip in revenue as we moved advertising into Shinka, and privatized much of the content (classified ads and music). Seems we’ve turned the corner. Content revenues are 20% up on last month,” said Knott-Craig.
The Mxit CEO added that, despite the dip in revenue earlier this year, they are on track to show a profit by the end of the year.
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