Mobile Net usage on the rise
Riaan Groenewald, Multimedia Solutions operations director, says while SMS and MMS figures have been increasing year on year, low data tariffs, easy access to the mobile Web and a growing amount of online content customised for mobile viewing are responsible for the increase in the number of consumers accessing the mobile Web and related services.
On the instant messaging front, Mxit is showing impressive stats, with almost six million registered users, 9m logins per day, a staggering 200m messages passing through their servers daily, and a growth rate of between 10 000 and 11 000 new subscriptions per day.
These kinds of figures have captured the attention of the cellular networks, who are positioning themselves to get into the market in 2008.
“MTN has already launched its Instant Messaging (IM) service, NokNok (www.noknok.co.za) while Vodacom has announced that it will be launching to TheGrid (www.thegrid.co.za) and Meep early in the New Year (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Cellular/2111.html),” Groenewald says.
These figures all point to 2008 being a key year for the mobile industry, adds Groenewald. The question is whether local corporates and retailers are prepared for this?
“Consumers are becoming increasingly active in the sharing of information. Last year, the online space was dominated by blogging and Social Media, with sites like Facebook coming to the fore. While online growth will continue to happen in South Africa, companies need to be focusing on their mobile strategy,” says Groenewald.
The reason for this is that while regular online users are restricted to a few million actual users, the stats are showing that the mobile user base is substantially bigger, sitting at around 25m users.
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