Ayoba, an entertainment gaming and communications App, has over the past few years developed several platform services for consumers that include free messaging, voice calling, video calling, group chats, and have now created what they call a Services Eco-System that is intended to take their platform to the next level for businesses.
They have an impressive App user numbers of over 35 million across Africa, mostly consisting of MTN subscribers who use the app for general entertainment value and now also for messaging and calling other App users, and who use the app free of data usage.
Charles Molapisi, MTN SA CEO, has previously commented that he believes the Ayoba platform is able to provide tough competition to WhatsApp on the African continent, and that it is an alternative messaging platform to go up against the Meta-owned WhatsApp.
The MTN subsidiary saw the opportunity to allow businesses to enter the platform and start engaging with their large client base by offering a website link and using Ayoba as a business communication platform.
The success of the chat and call functionality, has now opened up the possibility for Ayoba to offer a suit of business functionality that will include broadcast messaging, chat-bot automations, automated answering and video calls for demonstrations, information sessions or client interactions.
B2B First Product Available
Gillian Ezra, who is the Head of Sales & Development at Ayoba says that the first offering to be made available is their “Connect API” product that enables business to use the chat technology to communicate with their customers that Ayoba has built.
“So it was quite obvious to us that we should work with Chenosis that is in the business of taking API’s to market” comments Ezra. Chenosis is an API marketplace and development platform focussing on providing business communication solutions.
Waseem Amra, Head of Products and Platforms at Chenosis says, “our whole purpose (at Chenosis) is to connect people and businesses to capabilities to enable them to unlock strategies for innovation, growth and protection, and we see the Ayoba Connect API falling with in the innovation and growth pillar.”
“We identified the need for a communication API to bring into our API eco-system, and what this means for our end users and customers is that they have a comprehensive solution offering and that they can come to us a a one-stop-shop and have a full range of business management aPI’s and now from a customer engagement perspective also have a full suite of products that they can source from a single entity”, says Amra.
Clear Alignment of Purpose
There is a clear alignment of purpose between the two MTN owned companies that appear to be providing for a full business solution and what Amra says is part of the MTN value of empowering Africa.
Gillian Ezra adds that what they came to understand, as they engaged with various businesses across Africa, is that many of them were struggling to communicate effectively with their clients and the chat functionality on Ayoba had organically developed into one of the tools that businesses were using.
Building a B2B chat and communication function as part of the platform was a logical progression for them and the new product will be expanded to include an array of functionality as further developments take place.
Market Opportunity Tested
Amra comments that part of the development process was a “hackathon” that they held recently in order to understand how potential users would use the functionality and how they would integrate this into their own eco-system.
This has provided them with some interesting insights that will lead to further developments and additions to the product going forward.
This is a bold and interesting step for the companies and while the product is brand new and with few users currently. The lure of a massive existing marketplace and a well-established API platform for integration is likely to see business adoption of the platform in numbers.
