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Buy coffee at Vida with your mobile phone and MXit Moola

New MXit CEO, Alan Knott-Craig just announced through his Twitter profile that MXit is currently testing out a new service that allows MXit users to purchase coffee at Vida e caffè with their mobile phones.

In just three easy steps, customers can make the purchase through MXit Moola, the instant messaging service’s virtual currency. Currently in its beta phase, the service is only available to customers in Stellenbosch but is expected to spread country wide.
View the video below to learn how to use the service:

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16 Comments

  1. Well its a first step. Problem is that Vida not giving them a discount (shame on you Vida) and the network still taking their 40%. Shame really that the networks are throttling grown and entrepreneurship.

    1. I’m sure MXit are looking into more full proof ways to get Moola into the system bypassing the 40% MNO tax. Then this kind of deal starts making sense. 
      Also users could earn Moola for certain activities within MXit – like FNB rewards their customers with eBucks. Then its ‘free’ money to spend on real life goods. Score.

      1. Charl I agree that is one of the more interesting use cases.
        Fundamentally though for the wallet to be useful the ability to get money in quickly and efficiently from all sources (incl. cash) will need to be solved.  Since neither MXit and WiWallet are a bank their play is an intermediary wallet.  Even if they used real currency, look what happend to PoCit as a middle-man wallet play.  People don’t need another wallet system when they already have a bank account with a card.  
        For those who don’t have bank accounts there are solutions like FNB eWallet, ABSA Cashsend and dare I say Vodacom M-Pesa.  These products solve real problems and don;t try repackage payments.  For real work purchase virtual currency is just to protracted and distorts the real value of what is being bought.

      1. totally wrong target market, and only done because that particular outlet happens to be Alan Knott-Craig’s favourite coffee shop (he said in an interview) which means all this hype about him running around creating a service for the wrong target market for no reason other than he loves the place. but i guess he did pay half a billion for his new toy, so he has the right to use it as he wishes.

        1. They are obviously testing out using their virtual currency to pay for ‘real life’ items. Chinese giant Tencent followed a similar path with their currency QQ coins.

          1. how about testing it in their target market then? from the one person who’ll pay for vida this way, it’s not much of a test.

  3. How to pay for a Vida Coffee
    Before1. Take out card and swipe (5 sec)
    2. Sign or PIN (5 sec)
    3. Wait for approval (5 – 20 sec)
    4. Drink coffee
    After
    1. Launch Mixit (5sec)
    2. Find Contact/Menu/Wallet (5 sec)
    3. Get a code (5 sec provided you have money/moola in your wallet if not, then add another 60 sec at a very minimum to top up)
    4. Give teller code (5 sec)
    5. Wait for approval (5 – 20 sec)
    6. Drink coffee
    Which one do you think a Vida customer would use?

    1. Vida isn’t exactly the market for MXit payments imho. It will be for a market that don’t really use bank accounts. If you have cash, you buy airtime and you top up your moola. Now you can go and pay for things without having to use a bank.

      1. Don’t see this as a LT solution. Cost of converting Airtime to Moola is anywhere between 38% and 50% of the airtime value. Cash to Airtime to Payment not the future. Cash to Wallet to Payment is the solution.

        1. It is? Last time I bought moola (which is a while ago), I paid 5 rand for 500 moola. It might have changed, or I am missing something here.
          Even so, people are buying things with moola. A lot. Moving to real-world products isn’t that different.
          I have to agree though, if a new system would be built, decreasing the effort is logical. Ideally you would just hook up your phone to your bank account and swipe, NFC-style. That has the least amount of friction. Square has even less these days when you open a ‘tab’ at a place. You just say your name and it pays.

  4. Interesting development and some good comments as to how helpful this is to the average MXit/Vida customer. Anyone know who is powering the payment backend for this? 

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