WATCH: Former Mxit CEO admits he "messed it up"
Mxit was one of the most popular platforms in South African history, so what made it crash and burn?
The 2000s were the start of the cellphone era, and soon we were dialling 35050, downloading our favourite songs as polyphonic ringtones and playing 'Snake' like there was no tomorrow.
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But something even more revolutionary was on its way to changing how we used phones forever.
Mxit became the hottest and most iconic communication platform after its launch in 2003, thanks to its affordability.
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Instead of keeping track of how many SMSes and airtime you have left, you could chat with all your friends and family on Mxit.
And it was a proudly South African product!
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It quickly became extremely popular amongst teenagers, and even though parents didn't want their kids talking to strangers, one of the other favoured features was the chatrooms.
Mxit was called Africa's largest social network, with over 10-million active users by 2012, and attracted large investors, with Naspers acquiring a 30% stake in the company in 2007.
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In 2011, Mxit was acquired by World of Avatar, backed by former FirstRand executives Paul Harris and GT Ferreira, with CEO Alan Knott-Craig Junior at the helm, the founder of World of Avatar and former iBurst managing director.
Unfortunately, the limitless potential of the messaging platform dissipated after it faced increased competition from BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp.
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By 2013, the company's fate was sealed, and there was no way to reverse it.
In October 2015, it announced that it was closing its doors for good.
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In a statement at the time regarding its decision, the company said the success of cheap smartphones put Mxit, which did not have a decent smartphone version, on a downward spiral from which it could not recover.
Knott-Craig, the former CEO, has spoken about the decline of Mxit but, more recently, shared an even more honest TikTok video.
Not only does he take full accountability, but he also reflects on the mistakes the business made:
@alan.knottcraig I was the CEO of Mxit for a year and this is what happened to the company.
♬ original sound - Alan Knott-Craig
Unlike most CEO confessions, Alan's was met with understanding, positivity, and a lot of humour.
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One viewer wrote: "We lost our soulmates because of you!"
Others shared some nostalgic memories of the app or stories of the role it played in their lives:
- "yoh, the drama that mixit statuses caused. core memory unlocked."
- "I am married coz of Mxit 😅"
- "i have 2 people I'm still friends with from mxit.. we live far away from each other now but we still talk..🥰"
- "1st Tech CEO to apologize in public. 😅"
- "Bring it back, I was never single during mxit days 😔"
- "Sending a Please Call Me that read pls.log.on 😂 and chatting with R5 airtime for a whole week 😂"
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And we can't talk about Mxit without talking about the cringe, hilarious and crazy usernames:
- "I was Rock Diva 😭😭😭😭"
- "Why was i Str@wb3RryLipz25 ?"
- "lmao 🤣🤣🤣 yoh I was miss swagger some reason 🤣🤣"
- "I had no business being Miss diva at age 12😭"
After asking Rob Forbes and Rozanne McKenzie about their old usernames, the presenters revealed a plot twist that no one could have expected.
Listen below to find out more about their seriously crazy Mxit stories:
Tune in to 'The Drive with Rob & Roz', on weekdays from 16:00 – 19:00. Stream the show live here or download our mobile app here.
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Image: Screenshot/X