Mxit

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Mxit
64px
Developer(s) Flag of South Africa.svg Mxit (Pty) Ltd.
Initial release 2007
Stable release See → Current versions
Development status Active
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Java ME, Linux, BlackBerry OS
Type Instant Messenger
License Freeware
Website www.mxit.com
www.mxitlifestyle.com

Mxit (pronounced "mix it") is a free instant messaging application developed by Mxit (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa that runs on over 8,000 devices, including feature phones, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone and tablets.[1]

According to a study by consultancy World Wide Worx, Mxit had 7.4 million monthly active subscribers in July 2013, of which 6.3 million were South Africans.[2]

The company announced its closure in a statement on October 23, 2015.

History

Mxit originates from Stellenbosch, a university town in South Africa. In 1997, Herman Heunis established Swist Group Technologies and focused primarily on the mobile telecommunications industry, developing software and providing system support to large Telco's. In 2000 Clockspeed Mobile, a research and development division of Swist Group Technologies, developed a Massive Multiplayer Mobile game named Alaya. The game was SMS based and was not successful due to the high cost of SMS since GPRS was still not widely implemented. In 2003 the game was reassessed and the MXit concept was conceived by Herman that same year, MXit has evolved to become a major IM player in the South African arena thereafter.[3] In April 2004 Clockspeed Mobile became independent and on 1 July 2006 became MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd.[4] In January 2007, media giant Naspers acquired a 30% stake in the company for an undisclosed amount.[5] In 2013, competitor 2go overtook Mxit in term of users across Africa.[6]

In September 2011, Mxit was acquired by South African investment group, World of Avatar.[7]

Following the abrupt resignation of then boss, Alan Knott-Craig, Jr., Francois Swart received the nod from Mxit to become the new CEO (Mzekandaba, 2013).[8]

Former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan was announced chairman of the Mxit board in September 2013.[9]

Features

Mxit was first released as a mobile phone IM client, Mxit requires Java and internet connectivity via CSD, GPRS, 3G or wifi to run.

Originally built for feature phones, versions have also been released for the BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and tablets.[10]

In addition to one-on-one and group chat functions, Mxit offers public chat zones as well as apps and games ecosystem.[11]

Platforms

Supported platforms

Mxit is available on a variety of mobile and computing platforms, each independently developed for the platform. These are:

Current versions

Platform Current version Release date Third party
Java ME 7.1.0 12 November 2013 No
BlackBerry 7.0.1.389 27 January 2014 No
iPhone 7.2.0 5 April 2014 No
Android 7.2.1 23 April 2014 No
Windows Phone 8 1.0.3.1 6 December 2012 No
Windows Phone 7 1.0.3.0 25 May 2012 No
Linux 2.9.0, Pidgin 23 June 2011 Yes, Pidgin only,
bundled plugin
Microsoft Windows 2.9.0, Pidgin
2.0.1, MXit Evo		 23 June 2011
13 December 2010		 Yes, Pidgin,
bundled plugin
Mac OS X 1.0 31 August 2009 Yes, Adium only,
separate plugin[12]

International presence

Mxit operates in many international markets. Mxit is officially supported in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In August 2007 Mxit commissioned their European Data Centre located in Frankfurt, Germany. The purpose of this server farm is to take over most of the international traffic from the South African servers.[13] In September 2010, Mxit launched in Kenya, making it the first country outside of South Africa to have access to the full range of features.

Security

On November 4, 2014, Mxit scored 0 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. It lost points because communications are not encrypted in transit, communications are not encrypted with a key the provider doesn't have access to, users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, the code is not open to independent review, the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been a recent independent code audit.[14]

Shutting Down

The shutting down of Mxit was announced on October 23, 2015 in a public statement by the company after user numbers dropped dramatically over the last 2–3 years. Competition from various other social platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger along with Mxit's own lack of technological advances in the social arena attributed to the company's closure. The donating all of its intellectual property and technology assets to independent public benefit organisation The Reach Trust was announced in the statement issued by the company.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Download Mxit"
  2. ↑ SA Social Media Landscape 2014, World Wide Worx
  3. ↑ " About Mxit"
  4. ↑ MXit Forum • View topic - MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ "2go overtakes Mxit in Africa - study"
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ "Mxit finally gives Francois Swart the CEO nod"
  9. ↑ "Ex FNB head honcho Michael Jordaan named Mxit chairman"
  10. ↑ "Download Mxit"
  11. ↑ "Download Mxit"
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ MXit Forum • View forum - Mxit International
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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