Over the past few months, Econet has been aggressively entering into some kind fields; fitness, transport, and media. The respective launches of Maisha (or Ada), Kwese iflix, Vaya, and Yo Mix all have some similarities. All these offerings are app-based, which means that, unlike EcoFarmer or EcoCash, which might be predominantly USSD offerings, Econet is concentrated on the app market with these offerings.
The agent way
When Econet launches any product, they make several noises about that product, and in reality, we have to have predicted a similar method with the aforementioned apps. Econet has marketers that spark off people to download those 4 apps. You’ve possibly met them at some unspecified time in the future, e-book-in-hand asking you if you understand about any of the above utility and whether or not you’ve established it if you don’t, the college you for some seconds and tell you why you want the apps for your life. If you do determine to download the software(s), your name may be taken down within the agent’s pocketbook. This looks like a quite green manner for Econet to ramp up their installation numbers while agents can also make some money for the brand new clients they are bringing on board. It all sounds first-rate; however, that’s not to mention it’s a fit made in heaven. We will communicate approximately the hassle with this method in a while.
The promotions…
The other route Econet has taken to boom their install base is through promotions. There’s the currently introduced Vaya Million Dollar Promotion. There became a comparable promoting for Kwese-iflix, remaining yr as properly. Obviously, if you tell human beings that they stand to win something after they download your app and sign in, they’ll do precisely that. It’s just like gambling the lotto, and the desire of the rewards is enough to lure players. This method will provide absolute confidence growth the person installation base. However, I’m now not too positive about the way it bodes for person retention.
The blessings of these methods
Using marketers is outstanding because those marketers act as the salesperson familiarising the general public with the benefits of using these apps. However, for a few folks who knew that these apps existed, didn’t genuinely apprehend how they labored, there’s a hazard of capacity conversion. The desire is once the application has been mounted, customers will now recognize a way to use it. There’s less of gaining knowledge of curves.
The promoting approach also has its personal blessings, and if we take a look at Vaya’s maximum recent promotion, we will see a few blessings. First of all, many folks who hadn’t mounted the software will do so because they need to win something. Secondly, because you have to take a ride to stand a chance to win, the new installs are compelled to discover ways to use the application, and you then get direct revenue once they do. It’s a pretty great way for people to enjoy your provider and come up with their money. The equal element applies to the Kwese iflix promotions, which caused people to shop for bundles and stand a hazard to win. The installation numbers type of back this up as nicely. In November, Vaya had over 5 000 installations on Google Play, and now that wide variety has doubled, and they have over 10 000.
The problems with both techniques
If there’s one aspect I’m not keen on the subject of dealers is that due to the fact the agents receive a commission for the variety of human beings they get to install the apps, the guys may additionally let you know something it takes to install the utility. A colleague of mine changed into lately knowledgeable that the Yo Mix app works irrespective of age, which isn’t genuine. Maybe the agent wasn’t outright lying to him, and maybe they didn’t recognize the age restriction; however, either way, if my colleague had long gone directly to download an app, that wouldn’t work for them.
The handiest hassle I even have with the promotions is that it’s tough to ease repeat clients through this channel. We’ve seen it before with the OneFusion promoting and the impact tweaking it had on NetOne’s subscriber base, and the structuring of the Vaya Million Dollar is comparable. How many Vaya clients will maintain taking government rides when the Million Dollar Promotion is over and that they haven’t won anything? Of direction, some customers will remain when they have experienced your carrier; however, how many of them will absolutely hold using the utility after they are promoting? It’s hard to tell.
Among the blessings, I pointed out the doubling of installs that Vaya has done when you consider that November, but even that is hard to quantify. In November, Hindi, just like Vaya, had over five 000 downloads, and now their app web page also says they have got over 10 000 downloads. With thiss method, they’ve successfully doubled their deploy base without the need for promotions or hiring bodily retailers to persuade people to install their apps. It’s a slippery slope; however, judging on look alone, Hwindi would possibly have the upper hand because their acquisitions are more natural.
