Mobile social network Mxit has launched in India, its second country ever out of South Africa after its launch in Kenya September 2010.
The network has also released its Mxit 7 for Android and BlackBerry phone users and appointed Sam Rufus Nallaraj, a former VP Deloitte & Touche in Hyderabad as its CEO in India.
The India launch is expected to help the firm expand into other emerging markets by starting with India’s huge 550 million plus feature phones users.
According to Francois Swart Mxit CEO: “Launching Mxit in India was a natural strategic next step, which allows us to continue building on the success we’ve had with the application in South Africa. Expanding our emerging market footprint enables us to bring our innovative technology to the masses, making the ‘smartphone’ experience affordable to every consumer, regardless of the device they use.”
Mxit chairman and former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan, the Hyderabad launch see millions of indians enjoy a smartphone experience on their feature phones.
“We hope to make it here but it may take time. Fortunately, there is less competition in the feature phone space where Mxit chat works on 8,000 devices. We hope to make it here but it may take time. Fortunately, there is less competition in the feature phone space where Mxit chat works on 8,000 devices,” Mr Jordaan said.
Set to compete with WhatsApp in India, Mxit has an upper-hand as it’s fast and data light and will allow users with 2G to log in and use the service and is also compatible on over 8,000 devices which include tablets, smartphones and feature phones.
CEO Mxit India Nallaraj is excited about the launch in India, the world’s largest feature phone market. The Mxit 7 for BlackBerry and Android users has Group Chat for users to easily create groups, chat and share photos with up to 50 friends at a time; Backdrop, an ability to change the background in chat conversations from one’s Photo Stream; New profiles with cover images that allow user to share more profile information and upload large cover photos and Tablet support for Android tablets.
Mxit has 7.4 million monthly active users, of which 6.5 million are in South Africa.