Mxit on Friday announced that it is shutting down its commercial operations and donating all of its intellectual property and technology assets to independent public benefit organisation ‘The Reach Trust’.
The business further announced thatMichael Jordaan, who has been Mxit chair for the past two years, will not actively be involved with the operations of The Reach Trust.
“Disappointed but also happy that it can help free education in SA,” Jordaan told Fin24.
The Reach Trust, which is taking over Mxit’s technology, has been providing free services such as text-based counselling and education initiatives to up to 10 million people since 2012.
In a statement on Friday, Mxit said its monthly active user base in South Africa was just 1.2 million users in July 2015.
WhatsApp has over 10 million users in SA while Facebook has 13 million users in the country, according to recent research from World Wide Worx and Fuseware.
“Mxit could have been WhatsApp if it had acted two years faster,” he said.
