Africa\u2019s thirst for social networking seems insatiable and homegrown products to meet this thirst, like MXit and 2go, have really got traction. It\u2019s a mixture of flirting, free messaging and meeting real people that draws people in.<\/p>\n
With the current numbers, advertisers will begin to use mobile as a media and support their development. Russell Southwood spoke to Marc Herson, 2go about how it will seek to expand.<\/p>\n
2go is a mobile social network where people can use IM to chat with their friends for free and meet new friends in its chat-rooms. In total, it has over 20 million registered users, of which 3-3.5 million use it on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
Over the last 30 days there have been 8 million active users. Its biggest market is Nigeria (61% of total) which has 12.5 m users, followed by South Africa(31%) with 6.5 million users, followed by Kenya (4%) and Other (4%).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s continuing to grow at between 40,000-60,000 registered users a day. All this has been achieved with virtually no marketing and lots of word of mouth. When users sign up, they can send notifications to their friends to join.<\/p>\n
The users are young: 74% are 15-24 year olds in South Africa and 60% in Nigeria. The gender balance is almost equal in South Africa with 49% women but slightly more male in Nigeria with 64% men:<\/p>\n
“In South Africa, it\u2019s the women cleaning our office and the person trying to sell me a prepaid mobile at the corner-store. In Nigeria, users are more educated and sophisticated.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a profitable start-up launched by South African Anthony Davis. Currently it\u2019s self-funded but it may look for VC funding in the future. As Herson (part of whose background is in VC funding at Softbank) told us: \u201dI\u2019ve only recently joined 2go and I\u2019m their first executive hire. I\u2019m also an equity stakeholder in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s focused on giving users a light application that will work on low-end phones:\u201dWe are totally focused on creating the most nimble and light technology. A great deal of users in Nigeria have feature phones so it\u2019s easy to use Java-based application. You simply download it, answer a few questions like your age and you\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
It supports around 1,000 different feature phones (J2ME), Blackberry (with BIS integration) and Android. Better still, its messaging integrates with Gtalk, Facebook and MXit Chat so users don\u2019t have to choose between these applications.<\/p>\n
The messaging is free but there are three premium elements: 1) a clickable full screen; 2) goFriends; and 3) a sponsored Chat Room. In addition, 2go is pitching to advertisers that click-through and user engagement rates are between 5-35%.<\/p>\n
It also offering market research through sending questions to its considerable user base. However, the key source of income is Go credits which the user buys within the application and users use to get access to chat rooms.<\/p>\n
They have also had advertising from big brand names like McDonalds in South Africa. 50,000 2go users are friends of McDonalds in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Herson doesn\u2019t want 2go to overload the simplicity of what it does: “AOL and Yahoo used to try and be everything to everybody. If you\u2019re everything to everybody, you lose your focus.”<\/p>\n
“We need to make sure that users know why they\u2019re there, to meet people and date. It\u2019s got to be simple and fun.\u201d That said, it is looking at adding on little pieces of content, things like text-based jokes.<\/p>\n
In geographic terms, it wants to focus on those places where it\u2019s already got a foothold rather than tearing off all over the globe. This means building its offer, market share and revenues in its two key markets.<\/p>\n
Herson has also soft-launched another company with an app called Friendura, ten days ago that offers private chat rooms where groups of friends and family can share telephone numbers and photos.<\/p>\n
These chat rooms are limited to only people in the network. Herson says that sign-ups over the two weeks have been brisk and describes it as giving the user \u201cinstantaneous sharing of personal moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Balancingact-Africa<\/a><\/p>\n Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n Top smartphone operating systems<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Samsung doubles Apple smartphone sales \u2013 IDC<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Strong iPad shipments drive tablet market<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n