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Cape Town - Micro-jobbing service M4JAM (Money for Jam) has announced an ambitious expansion programme with a significant investment.
WeChat Africa, a Naspers and Tencent joint venture, has invested into the social jobbing platform as M4JAM plans ambitious expansion programmes.
"Its disruptive business model has turned 'business as usual' on its head from both the end consumer and the brand's perspective, resulting in a rapid and overwhelming demand from both users and companies to be on the M4JAM platform," said Brett Loubser, head of WeChat Africa.
Part of the strategy involves a talent hiring of former Google Africa Enterprise country manager Brett StClair. He will start at M4JAM officially on March 1 and will be tasked with scaling the platform both locally and internationally.
The investment makes sense for WeChat as the jobbing platform intended as a disrupter runs on the social network.
Cash generation
"M4JAM challenges the status quo enabling companies to rapidly gather data, perform mystery shopping, manage merchandising audits, improve product education and promote brand activation whilst soliciting real consumer insights at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods," said Andre Hugo, co-founder of M4JAM.
WeChat boasts about 300 million users mainly in China but the critical difference is that WeChat users generate more cash that Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
According to Nomura International based in Hong Kong, WeChat users are worth about $7 each in terms of revenue to the company, compared to WhatsApp users which contribute around $1.
Hugo added that the rationale behind the WeChat partnership was that M4JAM could tap into the social network's database and deploy quickly.
While WeChat is not as popular as WhatsApp in SA, the partnership should pay dividends for M4JAM in markets where WeChat has a stronger presence.
"It also benefits M4JAM as we are able to tap into an existing user base, which will be a huge benefit when moving into new markets where WeChat already has a strong presence," Hugo said.
* Fin24 is part of 24.com, a subsidiary of Media24, which is in the Naspers stable. WeChat SA is a subsidiary of Naspers.
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