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

It is now very easy to agree with these stats as being representative of the real scenario even while only a few people participated. Amongst the phone users that we have in Nigeria, only 5% of them are using smartphones, the rest are on feature phones. 2go IM is optimised to work with over 800 different feature phones and it also works on Blackberry too.

It is worthy to note that the reason many of these folks enjoy using 2go is that it can work on their phone, it is cheap and light, which means it does not consume a lot of internet data. A platform that has a lot of people on it has no other option than to keep growing. It is easier to use when you find that many of your friends are using it.

I once spoke with a pharmacy sales rep who told me she uses 2go to keep in touch with doctors and stores that she supplies goods too. She uses a Samsung Corby—a feature phone. When I asked her why she uses it, she told me she uses it to meet people and chat. However, she has not stopped there, but has gone further to use it to communicate with her customers.

The growth of 2go has been very impressive and they are set to start extending the offering to content aggregators, agencies, media buyers, mobile carriers, handset vendors, artists and music labels.

What are their numbers?

They have users scattered over Africa. 61% of their users are from Nigeria—12.5million, 31% from South Africa the home country of 2go—6.5million. Then they also have users in Kenya and some other parts of Africa.

Out of the 12.5 million users registered in Nigeria, 2.5 million log on every day. This provides huge prospect for brands, advertisers, agencies, musicians and record labels. They have kept quiet developing and making the service stable for a while. Marc Herson who is currently working with the small team that started 2go from university in 2007, told me that they have been adding a total of 50,000 users every day.

2go is a company that is bootstrapped and has been running profitably. It uses a virtual currency called Gocredits. It  is looking to expand its offering into markets where its user base is huge.

If you would like to work with 2go and leverage on their offering, you can contact them at info@2go.im