The writing had been on the wall for a while now (HERE and HERE), Friday seeing Mxit officially announce that they were shutting down.

The social network / messaging service made the decision to shut down commercial operations, nobly donating all of their tech assets and intellectual property to public benefit organisation ‘The Reach Trust’. Some of Friday’s statement below from Fin24:

“We were incredibly passionate about what we were doing and what Mxit meant to millions of South Africans over the years. It’s hard not to see the final shut down as a personal failure and I know many of my former colleagues feel the same way,” David Luis, former head of internal communications at Mxit…

We shouldn’t kick a company whilst they’re down but how exactly did these guys not build a smartphone-friendly app five years ago? It is a blunder of epic proportions and some of their key decision makers should in fact shoulder responsibility for their steady decline.

Here’s Michael Jordaan, Mxit chair for the past two years, again on Fin24:

Jordaan [said] that Mxit’s shrinking user base could be attributed to “customers switching to WhatsApp when they upgraded from feature phones to smartphones” and Mxit taking too long to adapt to smartphones. Mxit was launched in 2005 on feature phones.

Jordaan further told Fin24 that Mxit “could have been WhatsApp if it had acted two years faster”…

He further provided advice to budding startups in South Africa in light of what’s happened to Mxit.

“Smartphones change everything. Make them a key part of your strategy, regardless of industry,” Jordaan said.

When you consider just how dominant Whatsapp has become in the instant messaging game these past few years comments like that must really sting.

Here’s hoping this is a lesson that other budding apps and startups can learn from – far better to take lessons from someone else’s follies than your own.

RIP Mxit.

[sources:fin24&fin24]