Ayoba surpasses 25m monthly active users

By Alexander Chiejina 

Ayoba says it has surpassed 25 million monthly active users just four years into its operations, after it reached 20 million monthly active users in December 2022.

“25 million is a significant milestone to pass on our fourth birthday,” Burak Akinci, chief executive officer, disclosed. “Our journey has been transformative, and the positive response from our users fuels our drive for innovation. Our users are at the heart of our progress, and we are grateful for their support,” he added. 

This year the company has focused on enhancing communication and content features, both of which have been well received, with a 35 percent increase in messages, and a 16 percent increase in both stories and VoIP calls. Users have viewed 88 million cards across all channels, in topics such as entertainment, education, food, fashion and more, the company disclosed in a statement. 

“The first four months of 2023 was a period of significant growth and development for Ayoba. We have improved our socialisation and messaging functionalities, enhanced our microapp experience and added many more features,” Akinci further revealed.

The introduction of the new ‘explore’ landing page marks a significant advance for the Ayoba’s Android version. This page, currently in pilot phase, will be rolled out to all key territories in the future. It brings a simplified design for easy navigation through Ayoba’s curated high-quality content and highlights our themes to our users.

The microapp’s vertical has also seen significant evolution in Q1 2023 at Ayoba, as a direct shortcut to the vertical has been added on the bottom navigation bar. This section, referred to as an evolving ‘ecosystem for small African business’ – and some larger ones – allows service providers easy access to the existing Ayoba user base with minimal effort. The most popular microapps currently are ‘live scores’ (allowing users to get the latest sports scores), ‘ayoba gifting’, ‘video play apps’, sports, and shopping. 

Since its launch in May 2019, Ayoba has reached millions of users, with a current active user base of 25 million monthly active users. It offers users free access to an ecosystem of digital and rich media services through channels, microapps and payment solutions, embedded within an African super-app.

The platform is available globally but has a strong focus on the African continent. Among key territories are Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda and The Republic of Congo.

Ayoba is highly localised and tailored for African consumer needs, supporting 22 relevant languages. Users can send and receive encrypted messages, share photos, videos, files, and voice notes and can also subscribe to live channels. Family-friendly localised content is available through curated channels aimed at entertaining, educating and empowering communities. There are also a range of games. Ayoba is available for Android users on the Google Playstore, Apple Store, PalmStore (Transsion), Huawei and BeMobi stores as well as the Ayoba website (ayoba.me).  

Born out of a partnership with MTN, Ayoba is available on all networks. In certain participating territories, users on Ayoba receive complimentary daily data, amplifying its value proposition. Ayoba’s growth trajectory has it on track to achieve 100 million monthly active users by 2025 in line with MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy.