Business directory website Mocality will be closed at the end of February this year, the owners of the site have announced, following sister company Kalahari.co.ke in exiting the East African country.
The company, under the control of South African MIH group (Naspers), has been having profit issues, just like Kalahari.co.ke, which cited lack of business in the region when closing two years after it was launched.
“Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and Mocality is one of them. We hereby give you notice that Mocality will cease to render its services on the 28th February 2013,” said the company in an email to its customers.
South African companies, apart from a selected few, have had a hard time maintaining business in the East African region. The e-commerce business seems to have been particularly fruitless for such firms.
Mocality provided small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a space to advertise their products and services on a search engine hosted on the site. Companies were also invited to advertise through search results on the website.
This business model seemed to have been inadequate in Kenya. Last year, in an interview with HumanIPO, country director Joshua Mwaniki revealed the company had over 180,000 businesses listed in Kenya only.
The company also faced big competition from Google, who launched their Kenyan Business Online project in Kenya. The competition elicited conflict between Mocality and Google, where the latter was accused of stealing clients under the pretext to being a Mocality partner.
“We would like to thank all of our customers and business owners for your patronage and support over this time. We would also like to thank all of our agents, suppliers, staff and die-hard fans for your enthusiasm, drive and dedication that made Mocality into what it was,” the company stated.
