High SMS prices, the dominance of the Android operating system, and a major local competitor’s failure to adapt to changing user needs handed WhatsApp its leading position in the South African app messaging market, according to renowned South African tech expert Arthur Goldstuck.
WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, has become the world’s largest online instant messaging platform, with an estimated 2.7 billion users expected by 2023. While South Africa may not have the same volume of WhatsApp users as countries like India and Brazil, its local penetration rate is impressive.
A report from the Global Web Index’s Social Media User Trends reveals that approximately 96% of Internet users in South Africa were using WhatsApp by 2020, making it the country with the second-highest adoption rate after Kenya’s 97%.
Interestingly, WhatsApp was only launched in 2009, whereas South Africa’s experience with online messaging apps started much earlier. The first two apps to popularize mobile instant messaging locally were Mxit and Blackberry Messenger (BBM), both launched in 2005.
Mxit, created by Clockspeed Mobile, quickly gained popularity and amassed 50 million users in 120 countries, with 10 million users in South Africa alone by 2012. However, BBM started gaining momentum due to the popularity of full physical keyboards on Blackberry devices and the cost-effective Blackberry Internet Service, which provided uncapped data for basic Internet usage at a low monthly fee.
One major advantage BBM had over Mxit was the ability to run in the background and notify users of unread messages, while Mxit required users to open the app to receive messages. Unfortunately, Mxit failed to adapt to user expectations and ignored the growing popularity of BBM, leading to its decline.
Arthur Goldstuck recalled being informed by the founder of Mxit that BBM was irrelevant, only to witness BBM overpower Mxit a year later. By 2014, Mxit’s user base had halved to around 4.9 million, and by 2015, it had nearly halved again to 2.7 million users.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, experienced rapid growth with the support of the Facebook acquisition in 2015 for $19 billion. This allowed WhatsApp to expand as the go-to messaging app on Android devices, especially after Nokia saw it as an opportunity to compete with Blackberry’s dominance in the market.
WhatsApp’s compatibility with the influx of Android devices, coupled with effective marketing by Nokia, propelled its rise in South Africa. The demise of Blackberry further solidified WhatsApp’s position as the default messaging app.
While WeChat initially competed with WhatsApp, the latter’s wider compatibility and a flawed strategy from WeChat parent company, Tencent, gave WhatsApp the edge. Soon, WhatsApp became the preferred messaging app for most South Africans.
However, WhatsApp faced a brief backlash in 2021 due to a controversial policy change allowing Meta Platforms to share user data from WhatsApp Business accounts across its platforms. Despite this setback, WhatsApp messaging remains fully end-to-end encrypted, ensuring the privacy of personal and group chats.
While WhatsApp has successfully fended off competition from Signal and Telegram, Arthur Goldstuck warns that the messaging space is always evolving, and a new challenger could emerge. Nevertheless, for now, WhatsApp continues to dominate the South African app messaging market.
In conclusion, WhatsApp’s rise to dominance in South Africa can be attributed to factors such as high SMS prices, the prevalence of Android devices, and the failure of local competitors to adapt to evolving user needs. With its wide-ranging compatibility, user-friendly interface, and end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp has become the go-to messaging app for the majority of South Africans.
