Eskimi: A social network for feature phones crosses 7m user mark

Mobile social networks have a habit of thriving in emerging markets. You only have to look at the likes of Mxit from South Africa — with over 50-million users — and China’s Tencent QQ mobile, with over 200-million users, to see that.

One relatively new contender making waves is the Lithuanian-based Eskimi, which recently went past the 7-million user mark. Bear in mind that half of those users are from Nigeria, and that it’s only available on feature phones at the moment and you can see how much potential for growth it has.

Eskimi claims that this makes it the continent’s largest social network dedicated to meeting new people.

If the billion or so monthly ad impressions it lays claim to are anything to by, it’s not exactly going to run out of cash any time soon either.

“These are exciting times in Eskimi, as we are growing faster every day — we have grown more than 1-million new customers [in the] last month. We are happy to deliver services that are loved and
recommended by people to their friends”, said Eskimi CEO Vytas Paukstys.

Eskimi was launched as a mobile web chat service but was later re-positioned as a social network for meeting new people. It says its largest markets are Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Eskimi users browse profiles, chat, share photos, have discussions in forums, and share their interests.

It reckons its decision to build for feature phones first was justified given that only five percent of its customers have smartphones. The social network does however say that it is working on iOS and Android-based products.