MXit’s early South African mobile community
App & software · 2005 · Niche
Low-cost mobile chat spread through recommendations to millions of registrations.
Spread Score
How it worksNumbers
- Worldwide registered users
- 3M
- Founder report · Feb 7, 2007 · Open web · Self-reported · IOL / Pretoria News
- Milestone date
- Feb 7 ’07
- May 2005 to Feb 7 ’07
- Platforms
- 2
- Started on Open web
- Origin
- Seeded
- Technology
Mechanics
How it spread
Trace the originMXit’s free relaunch removed a subscription barrier to mobile conversation. Contemporary reports described personal recommendations, while an independent guide recorded how news coverage brought more curiosity. The founder reported three million registrations by early 2007.
Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
4 more events on this chart
Join free to see themTimeline (7)
January 2005
MXit precursor · Jan 2005
A paid version began with a monthly subscription, according to founder Herman Heunis.[1]
May 2005
MXit seed · May 2005
The company relaunched the service without a subscription fee after weak initial adoption.[1]
June 2006
IOL press · Jun 20 ’06
Contemporary reporting described word-of-mouth adoption and roughly 900,000 users.[2]
Spread the same way
New cases, every week
How the next thing spread, the week it does.



