Room for more competition in Africa's messaging app market

To change the world, change yourself first , Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

New from itWebAfrica.com

Multichannel online and mobile tech platform Mara Social Media plans to elevate the profile of the 550,000 user-strong Nimbuzz messaging application it acquired in March to capitalise on available market share.

Mara Social Media reaches 1 million users, both offline and online, via its products Mara Jobs and Mara Mentor.

Nimbuzz currently has 550,000 monthly users across the globe, of which 11% are in Africa. In 2013 the app had over 16 million users in Africa and 150 million users worldwide.

In March Mara Social Media took over Nimbuzz's unified platform as well as their international assets, IP and 

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Anubhav Nagar, CEO of Mara Social Media says based on rapid urbanisation, mobile penetration and technology-based solutions adaptation, the market for messaging and chat apps is still open to more players.

"In fact we see that there is huge potential. Being part of an African conglomerate also gives us an upper hand to take a messaging platform to Africa by an African company of origin," he added.

"By embracing new technological trends likes of IoT and machine learning we can always create a value proposition which will differentiate us from other players," Nagar said.

Nimbuzz offers chatrooms, bots for news and sport scores, a VoIP service and virtual goods that Nagar believes differentiates the business from WhatsApp and Telegram, a key in gaining traction within the cut-throat messaging market.

"The acquisition of Nimbuzz strengthens it by allowing us to go to market with a proven messaging application. We operate in the internet consumer product domain and any acquisition in that space adds more power and reach to the brand," he continued.

Nagar said, "We are also exploring better experience for our users by introducing conversational commerce and other concepts."

He added that they have no plans to change the brand name in a bid to keep loyal users. "As far as new features are concerned, definitely it's something which we can't avoid to be in the game. We will introduce new features at the right time."