Home-grown mobile social networking platform, Mxit is pushing for innovations in chat, growth in new markets, and is looking to benefit from significantly increasing digital advertising budgets.
In an interview with ITWeb, Mxit CEO Francois Swart noted that the company has high expectations for 2014. The start-up says having unveiled the Mxit 7 app at the end of 2013, much is anticipated for this year.
"We have big expectations for 2014 given where the landscape is going and where we want to take the brand," says Swart. "Last year was a great year, as the company made a number of accomplishments, and now has built a solid base to grow and innovate."
Swart notes that Mxit is a mobile social network for young people in emerging markets. "The company has ambitions for certain emerging markets, specifically India and Nigeria, and news on this will follow in the next month. On the product side, our focus is on making the chat experience richer and more fun, so there is always going to be room for innovation in that area."
According to Swart, some of the challenges the local start-up faces is that the industry is growing exponentially and, therefore, competition is rife and the space is becoming crowded. "Customers are spoilt for choice and how we position Mxit and sell it to new customers is, therefore, challenging," he says.
"We do not believe that a single player will take the lead in the social sphere, especially in mobile; there is a gap for a chat-focused social network - starting new and real conversations. It's about listening to our users and competitive innovation."
He mentions that there are a number of market trends he's noticing, particularly in the social and mobile arena. Mobile is killing off PC, resulting in rapid growth in mobile Web traffic. "As a result, we've seen mobile Internet penetration growing at a rapid rate in emerging markets, along with an increase in smartphone penetration, which is growing rapidly," he says.
According to Swart, the demand for social media platforms and Web content is exponential, as data costs keep dropping in certain emerging markets. Privacy and data protection remains a big topic in 2014.
"Brands and organisations are starting to catch on to the power of mobile and the benefits of digital," he concludes.
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