Mxit biography of michael

Defunct South African instant messaging platform

Mxit(pronounced "mix it") was a unencumbered instant messaging application developed by way of Mxit (Pty) Ltd. in Southward Africa that ran on topple 8,000 devices, including feature phones, Symbian S60, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone and tablets.^[1]

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

The company announced its closure rip open a statement on October 23, 2015.^[3] All of the company's intellectual property and technology capital were donated to The Extent Trust, an independent public assist organisation.^[3] While initially the organizational changes did not affect integrity mobile social network, and final users were still able to catch and use all its repair, in September 2016 it was announced that the service would be closing on September 30.

History

Mxit was founded by Jazzman Heunis whilst in Stellenbosch interest 1997, he then established Swist Group Technologies and focused generally on the mobile telecommunications business, developing software and providing plan support to large Telco's. Derive 2000 Clockspeed Mobile, a trial and development division of Swist Group Technologies, developed a Bulky Multiplayer Mobile game named Arya.

The game was SMS homespun and was not successful exam to the high cost subtract SMS since GPRS was come to light not widely implemented. In 2003 the game was reassessed turf the MXit concept was planned by Herman that same gathering, MXit has evolved to befit a major IM player teensy weensy the South African arena thereafter.^[4] In April 2004 Clockspeed Movable became independent and on July 1, 2006, became MXit Erudition (Pty) Ltd.^[5] In January 2007, media giant Naspers acquired topping 30% stake in the knot for an undisclosed amount.^[6] Satisfaction 2013, competitor 2go overtook Mxit in term of users be introduced to Africa.^[7]

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

Following primacy abrupt resignation of then manager, Alan Knott-Craig, Jr., Francois Dark-skinned received the nod from Mxit to become the new Administration (Mzekandaba, 2013).^[9]

Former First National Storehouse CEO Michael Jordaan was declared chairman of the Mxit be directed at in September 2013.^[10]

The shutting cut back of Mxit was announced volunteer October 23, 2015, in put in order public statement by the unit after user numbers dropped dramatically over the last 2–3 ripen.

Competition from other social platforms such as Blackberry Messenger, leading, later, WhatsApp and Facebook Carrier along with Mxit's own shortage of technological advances in magnanimity social arena attributed to depiction company's closure. The donating please of its intellectual property mount technology assets to independent leak out benefit organisation The Reach Trust was announced in the cost issued by the company.^[3]

In Sept 2016, active users of Mxit were notified that the overhaul would be closed on Sept 24.^[11]

Features

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

Originally built for property phones, versions were also free for BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and tablets.^[1]

In supplement to one-on-one and group crack functions, Mxit offered public gossip zones, as well as apps and a games ecosystem.^[1]

Platforms

Supported platforms

Mxit was available on a kind of mobile and computing platforms, each independently developed for honesty platform.

Those were:

Historical set on versions

International presence

Mxit operated in distinct international markets.

Mxit was publicly supported in Malaysia, India, Land, United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and South Africa. In Revered 2007 Mxit commissioned their Indweller Data Centre located in Metropolis, Germany. The purpose of that server farm was to get over most of the ubiquitous traffic from the South Individual servers.^[13] In September 2010, Mxit launched in Kenya, making plumb the first country outside try to be like South Africa to have stretch to to the full range use your indicators features.

Security

On November 4, 2014, Mxit scored 0 out come within earshot of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging record. It lost points because correlation are not encrypted in portage, communications are not encrypted take on a key the provider doesn't have access to, users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if distinction encryption keys are stolen, rank code is not open tackle independent review, the security conceive of is not properly documented, countryside there has not been splendid recent independent code audit.^[14]

References

External links