Mxit will cease to operate as a commercial venture, having donated all of its IP and technology assets to The Reach Trust, an independent public benefit organisation established to improve lives using Mxit technology.
The organisational changes will not affect the mobile social network, and users will still be able to access and use all of its features.
Since 2012, Reach has helped improve the lives of more than 10-million people through access to free services on their mobile phones.
An example of this is the Ukufunda Virtual School that was launched in partnership with the Department of Basic Education and UNICEF on Mxit in September last year. To date, more than 140 000 learners from 10 000 schools across the country have signed up for Ukufunda.
Reach will use key Mxit features such as the messaging service and the app publishing framework to sustain engagement with users, including more than 500 000 learners who continue to access educational apps on the platform every month.
The trust’s primary focus for the next 12 months will be on improving education outcomes in South Africa. A number of projects are already underway, and a new flagship product aimed at high school learners will be launched in Q1 of 2016.
“With the power of mobile technology in the hands of almost everyone in the country, we believe that it is critical to extend and expand the access to mobile content and services to accelerate social and economic change,” says Andrew Rudge, CEO of Reach.
