Rinchi
TechInAfrica – MTN announced yesterday that its instant messaging app, Ayoba, had reached 1 million monthly active users. Ayoba app is designed to meet African and Middle East consumer needs under the Over the Top (OTT) brand. It supports some local languages across the MTN markets, including isiZulu, isiXhosa, Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, French, and English.
Commenting on the milestone, MTN Group President and CEO, Rob Shuter, said: “We believe that our customers in Africa and the Middle East deserve a communication platform that expresses our unique voice, honors our rich identity through local languages, and addresses our customers’ specific needs and challenges by offering a data-included offering for MTN users, Mobile Money transfers (coming soon) and locally relevant content via channels.”
Ayoba was launched last year and has currently been available in 8 MTN markets, including Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea Bissau, and Afghanistan. In addition, it is also available on Google Play Store and via the Ayoba website at www.ayoba.me offered as an OTT.
David Gilarranz, CEO of MTN Digital said: “Ayoba is also working on building an open digital platform that will enable third-party innovation. This will ensure that we offer a rich diversified experience on the platform, enabling us to deliver more value to our users, empower local developers and create local experiences that are optimized for local communities.”
Ayoba has several key features and offerings, such as:
- Chat Now: a feature that allows users to send and receive text and voices messages with their contacts instantly
- Chat with everyone: users can send SMS text messages with their contacts whether or not they have installed Ayoba
- Channels: Users can subscribe to Channels for local content on various categories
- Local Languages: Ayoba is available in several local languages of MTN markets
- Security: it guarantees end-to-end encryption in which conversations on the platform cannot be accessed by anyone
- Money Transfers
Source: itnewsafrica.com
