Why won't we see Mxit in the Developed Countries? Interestingly this is one of those technologies that has an easy fit to Africa even though it may never gain traction in developed countries.

• SMS costs nothing ? Africa is almost entirely prepaid in its mobile use. In developed countries a sizeable proportion of the market is contract post paid. In most contracts, SMS are bundled – so to the user a single SMS does not seem to have a real cost – whether they use it or not they will pay their monthly fee.
• Entertainment please. At the same time, "always on" data flows are increasingly finding a market share. However the proliferation of "broad" data flows is enabling the fancier image orientated services including maps, images, audio, video. Data flows are already in the megabyte range.

Mxit is offering a simple Instant Messaging service which has found a ready market in South Africa. Such an offering would not really save contract based users money on their SMS, and is almost too simple a service for the sophisticated user. Hence its market penetration in developed countries is likely to be limited.