MTN is building Ayoba, which it calls "Africa’s first Super App"

[jannievanzyl]

"Super" apps don't work. People want quick responsive apps, not bulky "make me coffee, flush the toilet and do the washing apps"

Do one thing and do it well. There's a reason Discovery didn't merge their Health and Banking apps. It's already massive on its own.

Nothing worse than a slow loading FNB app, because it tries to do everything.

It seems to be working very well in the East?

BTW, a 'Super App' is not a single, moer-of-a-big, monolithic app. It's an eco-system more than an app.

 

[eye_suc]

free instant messaging, mobile commerce, and interactive entertainment

Mxit did all of that and more about 15 years ago already.

 

[Cactus]

It seems to be working very well in the East?

BTW, a 'Super App' is not a single, moer-of-a-big, monolithic app. It's an eco-system more than an app.

Genuine question: What is the difference between a monolithic app and an eco-system in your view?

Building an app with various unrelated features and throwing it all together sounds like a monolithic app to me. If MTN ends up with 3 apps, one for entertainment, one for communication, one for transacting, all interlinking, that I would consider an eco-system

 

[jannievanzyl]

Genuine question: What is the difference between a monolithic app and an eco-system in your view?

Building an app with various unrelated features and throwing it all together sounds like a monolithic app to me. If MTN ends up with 3 apps, one for entertainment, one for communication, one for transacting, all interlinking, that I would consider an eco-system

And that is exactly what these 'super-apps' are. Different apps for different functions but they work within an eco-system with common services, say identity or payment.

So, to answer your question; a monolithic app is one single app that tries to do everything while an eco-system is a collection of apps that share common services.

 

[access]

sounds like a marketing data mining app.

what happened to their free phone calls with adverts inbetween boasted about back in 1998/9. the ceo was so excited about the all new wireless application protocol, its the future of cellphones!, now its a scourge. a friend took a tumble down the stairs past him at one of the events which still had open bars.. lol. was not impressed.

 

[supersunbird]

Honest question;

Who do you think will crack this in Africa? Someone developing the concept from scratch or someone jumping on the back of someone already doing it for a billion active customers?

Definitely not Vodacom, who enable rogue WASPs what they want via the Vodacom Charge To Bill gateway, so they are not reputable and trustworthy enough.

MTN might stand a chance now that they have reputable customer-centric employees like Jacqui O'Sullivan. who actually had the MTN marketing spam issue fixed when raised, unlike Vodacom who denies the WASP problem on it's Charge To Bill gateway which bypasses WASPA membership[p requirement. If they can build that trust in caring about the customer maybe people might trust them for other services too.

Vodacom said it strongly denies allegations that “have led to MyBroadband repeatedly accusing Vodacom of knowingly facilitating fraudulent activity on its network”.

Vodacom added that it is aware of MyBroadband’s rationale for wanting to keep its “single source” anonymous.

However, Vodacom said it “respectfully contends that MyBroadband also has a duty, particularly when it is relevant, to inform its readers of the source’s motives”.

MyBroadband informed Vodacom that the articles and investigations over the past few weeks were based on multiple sources, as well as Vodacom subscribers who have been victims of airtime theft.

Vodacom caught stealing airtime from its own subscribers

A new investigation revealed that Vodacom has billed its customers for content services without their permission.

mybroadband.co.za

 

[blunt]

Seems like an idea from someone in management who sees themselves as the next Steve Jobs that nobody can say no to.. good luck, I've dealt with these types before

 

[Herr der Verboten]

It seems to be working very well in the East?

BTW, a 'Super App' is not a single, moer-of-a-big, monolithic app. It's an eco-system more than an app.

windows is a super app

 

[Vorastra]

AKA we looked at how Tencent consolidated everything into WeChat, making it a required app to function, in China and we liked that idea...

 

[supersunbird]

Honest question;

Who do you think will crack this in Africa? Someone developing the concept from scratch or someone jumping on the back of someone already doing it for a billion active customers?

Scratch my earlier comment about MTN, Vodacom and MTN have zero trust left, we warned you guys about WASPs being a problem but you guys wouldn't listen and now Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear is dead.

If you guys were banks you'd be the ones just letting rogue debit orders run wild, with some convoluted manual paperwork process with a fee attached to reverse any such debit order, with press statements about how you take the issue of rogue debit orders seriously while not doing anything about it at all, and at least debit orders mostly have a legitimate use, unlike most WASPs.