Vodacom’s MXit killer?
Vodacom is developing a cellphone application called The Grid which could prove to be a significant competitor to MXit Lifestyle, the company that develops the MXit instant messaging (IM) program that has taken SA’s youth market by storm.
Details are still sketchy, but Vodacom hinted at the launch last week of its new mobile advertising platform, On-The Line, that the product is on the cards.
The Grid is likely to combine IM — text messages sent over a cellphone’s Internet connection — with the functionality offered by social networking websites. The cellular giant, which has a 60% share of the market in SA, is planning to combine the functionality of services such as MySpace, Facebook and MXit in a free, advertising-funded mobile offering.
It will integrate the “real world with a virtual world via location based services”. Vodacom users will be able to use the software to find their friends based on their location.
They’ll be able to communicate using IM and by blogging (text, photo and video) on a “location-specific grid”.
“A powerful mobile social network funded by mobile advertising could be established by combining the power of social networking and mobiles,” says Romeo Kumalo, Vodacom’s SA commercial director. “We are also considering mobile TV and video insertions, a Vodacom radio station, as well as voice, text, content and mobile Internet searching, funded by advertising.”
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