Just to point out, Safaricom didn't create Mxit, they're importing this from South Africa.  Basically, using their marketing muscle to get major inroads in the data space (as you pointed out).

How is MTN SA losing KES 80M per day?  Aren't they making some of that back on data charges alone?  Mxit isn't tied to just one network, you can access it from anywhere you can get a data signal, so Zain and Yu will work here too.

On May 21, 2010, at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd wrote:

For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks
for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have
launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM
client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some
see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius
because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed
to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business:
Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition
does it for you)

After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more
than 8M Rand  (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their
platform on either gprs/edge.

Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!

Kiania
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