South Africa's home-grown instant messaging service, Mxit, has been supplanted by Facebook as the country's biggest social network, but succeeded in maintaining the loyalty of its user base.
This emerged from the final analysis of the SA Social Media Landscape 2014 research study, released this week by World Wide Worx and Fuseware.
Headline findings issued last month showed the Mxit user base had fallen significantly in the past year. However, when taking into account a change in the way the service measures active users - from being active on the network over 90 days to being on in the last 30 days - Mxit appears have turned a corner.
In July 2012, a 30-day active measure gave Mxit 6.2 million subscribers. A year later, in July 2013, the active subscriber base had grown marginally to 6.3 million, while, in August, this number had grown to 6.5 million.
Staying loyal
"This means that, despite a high churn rate among prepaid cellphone users, which comprise most of Mxit's base, the network is winning back enough users and attracting enough new customers every month to make up for that churn," says a joint statement on the research. The research suggests a high proportion of those who change their prepaid phone numbers return to register on Mxit again.
"This finding provides fascinating insight into the willingness of outgoing FNB CEO Michael Jordaan to take on the role of chairman of Mxit," says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. "Rather than coming in to rescue a dwindling brand, he has arrived to build on a relatively solid foundation."
Mxit said at the end of last month that Jordaan had been appointed as chairman of its board, taking over from Roger Grobler. Jordaan recently stepped down as CEO of FNB and is a recipient of the CNBC Africa Business Leader of the Year for Southern Africa award.
The SA Social Media Landscape 2014 report describes the decision by new Mxit CEO Francois Swart to clean up how Mxit reported its numbers as a turning point for the network. However, this does not mean its survival is guaranteed, notes the statement.
Swart was handed the reins on a permanent basis last month after acting as CEO since Alan Knott-Craig Jnr left last October. Knott-Craig's sudden resignation was prompted by a difference in opinion between him and the company's shareholders on how to execute its vision.
Mxit has said it wants to grow aggressively and boost its user base to 20 million this year.
Mike Wronski, MD of Fuseware, a social network analytics company, says: "Mxit is holding its own, but at a time when Facebook has grown by more than half and Twitter has more than doubled. That is enough of a challenge, but then you also have local instant messaging service 2Go overtaking Mxit in active users across Africa, and WhatsApp in turn overtaking everyone, including Facebook."
Mxit currently has 7.4 million active users across Africa, while 2Go has 10.5 million.
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