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Mobile buyback service hits SA today

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 25 Nov 2014
Felix Martin, MD of Zwipit SA, says the South African market is ripe for mobile device buyback services.
Felix Martin, MD of Zwipit SA, says the South African market is ripe for mobile device buyback services.

A new mobile buyback service, dubbed Zwipit, has chosen SA as its tenth market to launch in, following the runaway growth in smartphone uptake in the country.

Introduced in Spain in 2011 and launching locally today, Zwipit specialises in the acquisition of used mobile devices - including feature phones, smartphones and tablets.

Zwipit SA will initially offer cash to mobile device owners for their old devices (phase one) and, in time, it will refurbish acquired devices and sell them to South African customers (phase two).

Felix Martin, MD of Zwipit SA, explains Zwipit SA's proposition offers both consumers and corporates a fully-integrated e-commerce platform via which they can trade in their mobile devices. "Zwipit will collect from the customer's home or office at no cost. This is in our view a tipping point in the growing e-commerce trend in SA."

The amount paid out to the consumer is dependent on the condition of their used device, a consideration that will fall under one of three categories - good as new, working or not working - which the user defines upon registering their device for cash back. Zwipit does not accept water-damaged devices.

Pricing is also market-related, so - for example - a used Samsung Galaxy S4 in working order would get a cash back amount of around R1 100. Money will be paid into the user's bank account within a maximum of 10 working days, says Zwipit.

Zwipit SA is device agnostic and will buy most major brands and models.

Global outlook

SA is the first African country Zwipit - which has set up its head office in Johannesburg's Rivonia suburb - has launched in.

Its international footprint includes Bahrain, Chile, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, France and the UK (through distribution channel Car Phone Warehouse) and Mexico (through a partnership with Claro).

As to the company's future expansion into Africa - one of the world's fastest growing mobile markets - Martin says the intention is to firm up operations in SA first. "We are confident this model is replicable in other African countries and would move into expansion phase at the right time."

He says the company is moving around 40 000 devices per month, globally. One of the company's most recently tapped markets, Turkey, is seeing between 4 000 and 5 000 devices going through the system per month.

According to Sanford C Bernstein & Co, 53 million phones were traded-in last year and this number is expected to be significantly higher (257 million) in 2018. An article by Forbes last year cited Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C Bernstein as saying the firm estimates used phones will cannibalise 8% of total new smartphone sales by 2018 - up from 3% in 2012.

Martin says a mobile buyback venture has the potential to succeed when mobile phones of a certain value are prevalent in the market. "In SA, there are around 16.5 million smartphones and [the country] has seen growth of 20% over the past year, so the market is ready."

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