Mxit is shutting down

South Africa’s free instant messaging app – Mxit is shutting down its commercial operations and donating all of its intellectual property and technology assets to independent public benefit organisation ‘The Reach Trust’, Fin24 reports.

According to the report, the app lost millions of active users in a short period of time, from 7.5 million monthly active users in 2013 dropped to 1.2 million in July 2015.

Mxit, in its statement, said its application would still be available to the public as a download.

But as part of the deal, Mxit chief executive Francois Swart will depart after three years in charge. Almost 30 Mxit staff will also be transferred to The Reach Trust under CEO Andrew Rudge and ex-FNB CEO Michael Jordaan, who has been the chairperson of Mxit, will not be actively involved with the operations of The Reach Trust.

As part of the change Mxit will also exit its India and Nigeria businesses.

The Reach Trust has been providing free services such as text-based counselling and education initiatives to up to 10 million people since 2012.