MXit seeks to co-operate with cellular providers
MXit Lifestyle, the company that develops the popular MXit instant messaging software for cellphones, wants to work more closely with SA’s cellphone operators, with which it has had a tense relationship in the past. It has even promised to share revenue with them.
MXit, and services similar to it, threaten to erode the billions of rand that operators make from people sending text messages to each other using SMS.
Now MXit Lifestyle — its SA arm is 30%-owned by Naspers, which owns 50% of its international division — is extending an olive branch to the operators. “They’ll have to face the fact that their SMS revenues will decline,” says MXit Lifestyle CEO Herman Heunis “They must either develop their own instant messaging software . or they can work with us and not see us as the enemy.”
Vodacom is developing its own rival to MXit. It has built software called the Grid, which is available on all cellular networks in SA. “Vodacom is always open to discussions that could result in benefits to consumers and mutual parties,” is all Dot Field, the company’s chief communications officer, will say.
Heunis says he is prepared to share revenues that the MXit service generates, provided the operators preload the software on new handsets they sell and ensure that the handsets are able to access the Internet out of the box.
“We are prepared to share ad revenues, content sales revenues [such as wallpapers and ring tones], and maybe even transactional revenues,” he says.
MXit, which has 12,5m registered users — Heunis declines to say how many of these are active — is popular among the under-25s, who like the ability to chat free of charge for hours on end.
Heunis says MXit is keen to expand into new areas. He hopes to turn MXit into a platform over which people will regularly do financial transactions.
The company recently launched MyMoney in partnership with Standard Bank. MyMoney allows users to buy credit with vouchers instead of using premium-rated SMS. Also, users can now buy airtime in MXit. Heunis plans to sell music, books and video in the same way.
The company is also actively eyeing international markets for growth, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
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