MTN-backed super-app Ayoba now has grown its user base by a quarter in the first four months of the year to more than 25-million monthly active users, the mobile operator reported on Wednesday.
The milestone puts the platform another step closer to achieving MTN’s goal of 100-million active users by 2025. This also marks progress by Africa’s largest mobile operator with its new lines of business premised on services such as mobile money and instant messaging.
“The first four months of 2023 [were] a period of significant growth and development for Ayoba,” said Burak Akinci, CEO of the messaging and super-app platform, which competes with WhatsApp and WeChat.
“We have improved our socialisation and messaging functionalities, enhanced our microapp experience and added many more features.”
The success of WeChat — Tencent’s super-app in China — has convinced companies across the banking and telecom sectors in SA that new growth areas, such as mobile payments and integration with multiple service providers, are the future.
A super-app aims to be a one-stop shop for the user, with services ranging from connectivity, entertainment, shopping and finance.
MTN, in partnership with Ayoba, had reported that the platform reached 20-million users in December 5. The recent increase in users to more than 25-million represents a growth of 25%.
Since then, the platform has focused on enhancing its communication and content features, which has helped to drive up user numbers.
The platform has seen a 35% increase in messages, and 16% growth in both stories and VoIP (internet-based) calls. Users have viewed 88-million cards across all channels, in topics such as entertainment, education, food, fashion and more.
The app, developed in partnership with MTN, is open to all networks. Users receive free daily data in participating markets. Current key territories include Nigeria, Cameroon, SA, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Ayoba is South African slang meaning “cool” or “all right”.
Rival Vodacom has its own VodaPay super-app, which was launched in late 2021. The platform has had more than 3.5-million downloads with more than 2.2-million of those by registered users.
In another corner of the market, banks such as FNB have taken a stab at the e-commerce space with a marketplace that allows businesses to list products and services, with the benefit of the bank’s payment integration.
Nedbank launched its Avo platform in 2020, offering a wide range of products and services, most recently introducing a vehicle marketplace akin to WeBuyCars, Cardura and Wheels24.
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