2go: The Mobile Social Media App Taking Africa by Storm

Personally I have been fascinated with the popularity of 2go IM app for a long time. Some have nick named it BBM for the poor. That has not hindered the people using it. It is a very cheap means of communicating, meeting new people and catching some fun.

During my trial and review of the BlackBerry 9320 I was able to test some apps. One of the apps that I tested is the 2go app. I had initially given the 2go instant messaging and chat application a spin on my Nokia N8, but I could not get it to work properly with my Nokia N8. It appears I was a novice to the app then. After giving it a spin for the second time, it works, and works well too.

As soon as I got the BlackBerry 9320, I downloaded it.

I have a friend that I spend so much time talking to on the phone and we have been looking for a chatting platform that can ease the two of us. Since my friend is on a feature phone and a heavy user of the 2go app, I decided to download the app.

How Popular has 2go been?

During 2010, even with no funding and no press coverage, the 2go messenger grew organically and it was the no. 1 most searched term according to Google. The trend has always been that the users always go before the brands and providers of services. Facebook was born before Facebook ad and Facebook commerce. Folks have been using Twitter before marketers and brands came along to look at how they can use it to reach out to their users.

2go has already broken lots of grounds since inception. Time is ripe for brands and businesses to make their offering available to the active users.

2go messenger vs BlackBerry messenger

During a recent survey that was carried out by CP-Africa.com they pitched the BlackBerry Messaging application with the 2go IM app. I was surprised to see that the popular Blackberry, that happens to be the most popular smartphone in Nigeria, bowed to the 2go IM application. I remember several conversations that I have had in the past with BlackBerry smartphone users, asking them if they were going to use the 2go application. Many of them said the app was unusable and boring.

This is however not what a recent research showed, where 71% of the people, voted in favour of the 2go IM, while only 24% voted in favour of BlackBerry messengers. The remaining voters chose others.