Mxit

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

Mxit
Developer(s)Mxit (Pty) Ltd.
Initial release2005
Stable release
Operating systemWindows, Windows Mobile, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, Java ME
TypeInstant Messenger
LicenseFreeware
Websitewww.mxit.com

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.[3] All of the company's intellectual property and technology assets were donated to The Reach Trust, an independent public benefit organisation.[3] While initially the organisational changes did not affect the mobile social network, and users were still able to access and use all its services, in September 2016 it was announced that the service would be closing on September 30.

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 Arya. 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.[4] In April 2004 Clockspeed Mobile became independent and on July 1, 2006 became MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd.[5] In January 2007, media giant Naspers acquired a 30% stake in the company for an undisclosed amount.[6] In 2013, competitor 2go overtook Mxit in term of users across Africa.[7]

In September 2011, Mxit was acquired by South African investment group, World of Avatar.[8]

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).[9]

Former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan was announced chairman of the Mxit board in September 2013.[10]

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 other social platforms such as Blackberry Messenger, and, later, 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.[3]

In September 2016, active users of Mxit were notified that the service would be closed on September 30.[11]

Features

Mxit was first released as a mobile phone instant messaging client, and required Java (J2ME) and internet connectivity via CSD, GPRS, 3G or Wifi to run.

Originally built for feature phones, versions were also released for BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and tablets.[12]

In addition to one-on-one and group chat functions, Mxit offered public chat zones, as well as apps and a games ecosystem.[13]

Platforms

Supported platforms

Mxit was available on a variety of mobile and computing platforms, each independently developed for the platform. Those were:

Historical last versions
PlatformLast versionRelease dateThird party
Java ME7.1.0November 12, 2013No
BlackBerry7.0.1.389January 27, 2014No
iPhone7.2.0April 5, 2014No
Android7.2.1April 23, 2014No
Windows Phone 81.0.3.1December 6, 2012No
Windows Phone 71.0.3.0May 25, 2012No
Linux2.9.0, PidginJune 23, 2011Yes, Pidgin only,
bundled plugin
Microsoft Windows2.9.0, Pidgin
2.0.1, MXit Evo		June 23, 2011
December 13, 2010		Yes, Pidgin,
bundled plugin
Mac OS X1.0August 31, 2009Yes, Adium only,
separate plugin[14]

International presence

Mxit operated in many international markets. Mxit was officially supported in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and South Africa. In August 2007 Mxit commissioned their European Data Centre located in Frankfurt, Germany. The purpose of this server farm was to take over most of the international traffic from the South African servers.[15] 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.[16]

gollark: I use Linux on all my stuff. It's very convenient except when it's not.
gollark: And would still require memorising a ton of metadata.
gollark: See, that would maybe be more secure, except for the physical book thing, but also extremely annoying.
gollark: I mostly use the built-in Firefox one. It's more secure and convenient than remembering passwords.
gollark: > Do you use a password management service or what?Yes. I also have other vaguely private stuff.

References
  1. "Download Mxit"
  2. SA Social Media Landscape 2014, World Wide Worx
  3. "Last throw of the dice for Mxit". News24. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  4. " About Mxit"
  5. MXit Forum • View topic - MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd
  6. "Naspers acquires a 30% share in MXit". Naspers. January 26, 2007. Archived from the original on July 11, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
  7. "2go overtakes Mxit in Africa - study"
  8. Atagana, Michelle (September 22, 2011). "Exclusive: Alan Knott-Craig buys Mxit, Herman Heunis steps down". memeburn.com. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
  9. "Mxit finally gives Francois Swart the CEO nod"
  10. "Ex FNB head honcho Michael Jordaan named Mxit chairman"
  11. Ellis, Megan (September 15, 2016). "The end of Mxit is officially here". iafrica.com. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  12. "Download Mxit"
  13. "Download Mxit"
  14. "View forum: Version Support". Mxit Forum. phpBB Group. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  15. MXit Forum • View forum - Mxit International
  16. "Secure Messaging Scorecard. Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?". Electronic Frontier Foundation. November 4, 2014. Archived from the original on November 15, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
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