We are all familiar with the highly recommended Gumtree.co.za, which gives ordinary people the chance to sell the goods and services, apply for job vacancies or search for accommodation and motor vehicles etc online. Launched recently in BETA, MXit Xchange takes the Gumtree model and allows MXit’s users to access the principal of Gumtree right on their most favored social network.

However, MXit user’s had a different agenda as oppose to the agenda of the heads at MXit Lifestyle. Currently MXit Xchange holds about 35 000 listings, but not a single legitimate listing to even whisper about. What went wrong you may wonder?

1. Personal Dating Board – Since one must pay “moola” (MXit currency) to chat in the chat rooms to obtain new contacts, most user’s saw this as an opportunity to advertise their age, sex, race and number followed by a short word of their own to describe their appeal, hoping to obtain new contacts for free.
2. Illegal and Unorthodox goods and services – Some saw the MXit Xchange launch as a means to promote their “Businesses” , these businesses ranged from pirated movies to branded clothing at strangely rock-bottom prices.
3. Begging Board – Here, every MXiteer took the opportunity to put them out there by advertising their desperation and willingness to do anything for minimum pay. I was surprise to see MXit actually added this category “Jobs”, given current circumstances.
4. Spam, Spam and more Spam – Blank ads, sick ads, funny ads, stupid ads etc, you name it and MXit Xchange has it all.

In response to this, MXit launched what I call a “sedative”, which encouraged legitimate posts through a chance to win a brand new cell phone. Sure MXit could ban the abusers from the social network or even remove the bad ads, but the severity of this problem is beyond that. These are moola paying MXiteers, and banning them will not reflect too well on the profit margins.

These are the main problems that MXit Lifestyle has to urgently address if this product is to set an evolution, to the way we did our business before on Gumtree. It’s evident that MXit is guilty of anticipating incorrectly and not paying enough strategic attention.

Do not get me wrong, this is no pessimistic tone, but rather a concerned tone. There is great potential out there, but since MXit holds millions of user’s, a holistic approach to these product models is crucial to kick start the South African internet industry to the standard of our international neighbors.

At the same time, the nature of this product is a milestone for the South African internet industry and has all the potential to cut into Gumtree’s big slice as the number one local listings website. MXit users have shown not the slightest bit of support, which makes me question the effect this product will have on MXit’s confidence to venture deeper, and more importantly the confidence to venture deeper into larger endeavors.