Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone?...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that...

MXit adds Afrikaans, Xhosa and isiZulu language support

MXit, the massive South African mobile instant messaging success story, has launched service in three additional languages — those languages are Afrikaans, Xhosa and isiZulu.

Here’s a quick primer:

Afrikaans is derived from Dutch and is the majority language of the western one-third of South Africa. Hallo! Hoe gaan dit? means ‘Hello! How are you?’ in Afrikaans.

isiZulu is the most popular home language in South Africa. If you wanted to text hello to someone via MXit, you’d write Sawubona and if you wanted to enquire if they spoke English, you’d write Ukhuluma isiNgisi na?.

Xhosa is South Africa’s second most popular common home language after Zulu.
I’m willing to bet that you were unaware Nelson Mandela is a famous Xhosa-speaker? Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know this.

5.4 million MXit users can now converse in these languages — Paul Stemmet, the General Manager of MXit Lifestyle reckons this will boost traffic and subscriptions even more. Quoting from the press release:

He believes that the new languages, coupled with the inexpensive nature of chatting via MXit (the cost of a MXit instant-message is less than 1cent, as opposed to approximately 80c for an SMS) will ensure that the current trend of some 10 000 to 12 000 new registrations signing up daily will continue.

That’s quite a substantial cost saving 1 cent vs 80 cents.

10-12k new registrations a day? Geez!

2 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recently Published

Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an HP LaserJet printer (version 3, if memory serves), I have been printing with an HP. Over the...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone? I'm asking because I'm thinking about what I should be doing. When I was living in Oman, I...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that next to nothing from Mobile World Congress would break through into the mainstream media. I was right,...

How Wireless Will Pave the Path to Neobank Profitability

I'm delighted to bring you an opinion piece from Rafa Plantier at Gigs.com. I think it's particularly relevant given the recent eSIM news from...

An end of an era: Vodafone UK turns off 3G services

I thought it was worthwhile highlighting this one from the Vodafone UK team. For so long - for what feels like years, seeing the...

Mobile World Congress: Did the mainstream media notice?

I resolved this year to make sure I wrote something - anything - about Mobile World Congress, the huge mobile industry trade show taking...