They trumped market leaders such as Apple, beating them to the chase by releasing a range of black emoticons internationally.
Oju Africa, a division of Mi Fone, a company that has produced cell phones on a large scale throughout the continent, is breaking barriers.
Formed in 2012, Oju Africa forms part of the premier mobile-lifestyle brand Mi-Group International Ltd.
The African mobile giant had intended to launch the black emoticons at the global brand launch, however decided to release 15 of them early, following discussions surrounding #EmojiEthnicityUpdate and subsequent trends on Twitter.
The launch of Oju will undoubtedly help us achieve our dream of digitally uniting Africa, liberating Africans from digital exclusion
Mi Fone has become a global leader in African entrepreneurship, with revenue valued at R300 million. It has sold over 2 million handsets in 15 countries and will make its foray into the South African market in the next three months.
The company caters for the lower- to middle-income categories — a group that seeks internet access at a reasonable cost. Based in Mauritius, Mi Fone will set up local headquarters in SA and will work with distributors to market and sell their phones.
Designed to be used across all Android platforms, the Oju’s will be released shortly on IOS and other platforms.
Alpesh Patel, Mi Fone founder, says the concept of the emoticons was based on the fact that Africa does not have its own cartoon characters to look up to such as Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty.
“This is a clear, positive sign of innovation. Oju is the new African character for the 21st century. Its influence will span digital and social platforms. We decided to go with Oju because many people don’t know what it means — it’s a Nigerian term and a catchy, short, cool name. We believe it has an attractive marketing aspect.”
Patel says they had brainstormed ways to make their product more appealing. The strategy of launching custom-made emoticons made sense as it would add more value and diversity to Mi Fone’s products.
Within four days of launching the Oju emoticons, 12 000 people downloaded the free app from Google Play, with the majority of those downloads originating from the United States. While the app is free, Oju generates income from licensing the app to the various digital platforms such as Android.
A portion of all licencing fees generated will be donated to the Mi-Oju Children’s Foundation, which was officially launched at the event in association with Mi-Fone Board Advisors, who will oversee the funding of the children’s foundation, and bestselling leadership author Robin Sharma, who is a patron of the foundation.
“The purpose of the foundation is to empower and educate the Children of Africa via ICT. The launch Oju and the Mi-Oju Children’s Foundation with Robin Sharma will undoubtedly help us achieve our dream of digitally uniting Africa, liberating Africans from digital exclusion,” said Patel.
Additional source: Mi Fone
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