As of yesterday, there's a new mobile messaging service on the already rather full block. But the creators of the new service, ZiNG, are confident it has a place in the market.
Released in 15 countries this week, including SA, Australia, Botswana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, ZiNG is a low-cost, cross-platform mobile messaging service developed by Blazingchilli.
According to Blazingchilli, ZiNG offers instant and group messaging, live news and data sharing, and supports “virtually all” data-enabled mobile devices (Java, Android, BlackBerry and Apple). The app is free to download and the developers maintain the service's rate of a maximum of R1 per user per day for unlimited messaging will “shake up the market”. (*see note below story)
Room for another?
But with significant competitors such as MXit and WhatsApp, is there space for a new player? Blazingchilli's mobile strategy director, Brett Loubser, says there is “most certainly space for ZiNG”.
“We believe we have significant competitive advantages over the competitors,” says Loubser. “WhatsApp has traction in the smartphone environment only, and is not free. We expect to see WhatsApp use dwindle, especially in the African context once the payment cycle kicks in.
“To build sustainable growth, we have content delivery zones that will entice users, and the group messaging functionality that will launch soon will create a new way for organisations to engage with their audience,” explains Loubser.
“It is also important to realise that for many phone users, using multiple communication platforms has become the norm. I equate this to the way we happily use MSN Messenger, Skype and Gtalk on our desktops without ever thinking that we have to choose only one. There is tremendous scope for growth in Africa.”
Loubser says Blazingchilli analysed all competitors in the market and has taken many lessons from them. “Our business model is multi-layered, specifically to meet the unique requirements of doing business in a world that has a blend of first world expectations and emerging market need.”
According to Loubser, ZiNG's primary focus has been SA, but it has seen uptake in all the territories in which it has launched. “The response has been very positive, user registrations are fantastic for our first couple of days since launch, and we are very excited about our prospects.”
Finding the gap
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says ZiNG appears to operate in a parallel universe where the concept of a “multi-messenger” and the idea of connecting with friends through a social network on a phone has not yet been invented.
While ZiNG says there are 50-55 million active SIM cards in SA, 4.7 times more households with a cellphone than a computer, Goldstuck warns against conflating the number of people who can receive messages on a cellphone with the number of people who can be reached via their service.
“Of course that is the difference between market size and market potential. They are not the same thing, and it is the gap between the two that ZiNG must prove itself,” says Goldstuck.
“There is little unique, and there is nothing original in the value proposition. With 10.5 million MXit users in SA, one would suspect it is now common knowledge that unlimited instant messaging is available at the equivalent cost of a few cents a day.
“They would need to do far more than that to shake up the market. The truth is this is a market that is being shaken up almost daily as people cast about for the next big saving to be had from mixing, matching and shopping around.”
Inevitable, necessary
Goldstuck says the low-end of the South African mobile market is built on arbitrage, “a fluid movement across networks and services in order to get the best deal and the biggest saving”.
“You have to insert yourself inside that fluidity in order to grab market share. 2Go did it without hype or gimmicks. 8ta did it with marketing muscle and low cost. ZiNG will need to market themselves far more intelligently to a market that is rather intelligent about its options.”
On whether there's space for another player, Goldstuck says: “There's always room for new services that do it better, quicker, easier, and more seamlessly. A year ago one may have asked the same of WhatsApp. A year from now both of those could be dead in the water.
“The market keeps evolving, and new entrants are not only inevitable, they are necessary. It keeps incumbents on their toes, and helps improve services all round.”
Note: ZiNG has clarified that the R1 per user per day cost is the Enterprise messaging product that will be launched soon and not the user cost. The cost to a user should be much lower on average.
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