Johannesburg – Telecommunications giant MTN is facing a R1.2-billion lawsuit from a Soweto- based company, Biza Telecoms, over allegations that it stole the company’s concept when it launched its Ayoba app.
Biza has made its claim against MTN South Africa and MTN Group Limited.
At the centre of the dispute is Biza’s social networking service called Chomi.
In the particulars of the claim seen by Sunday World, Biza says its management, Seati Moloi, Justice Setlodi, Makhaola Mohanoe and Pule Mofaledi met then MTN group chief commercial officer Pieter Verkade where the company presented in “great detail” its Chomi concept.
In papers lodged at the Joburg high court, Biza claims that Chomi had the following unique features at the time of presentation:
• The platform could be used on all mobile devices.
• Chomi had approximately 14 language options for the registered user.
• In terms of functionality, communication can be across different devices. For example, a smartphone can communicate with a basic phone. The company then alleges that Verkade expressed interest in the Chomi application as presented by Biza. However, two months after the presentation (May 2015) MTN told Biza it could not proceed with the partnership as the company wanted to focus on its core business.
Biza says to its surprise, MTN in May 2019 launched Ayoba, an application it says offers the same services as Chomi.
Biza argues that the common features between Chomi and Ayoba are that they both target African markets and offer multi-language options with an emphasis on languages used in Africa.
“In unlawfully appropriating, adapting, copying and/or imitating Chomi, the first and third defendants have been enriched. Such enrichment is unjustified and at the expense of the plaintiff … the aforesaid unlawful conduct has caused the plaintiff damages in the sum of R1 200 000,000 .”
Olivier Prentout, the head of consumer marketing at Ayoba, early this month said the messaging app now counts 5.5-million monthly users as part of its user base. At the end of June 2020,
Ayoba had 2-million active users. In November 2020, Ayoba was named the “Best Mobile App of the Year” at the Africa Digital Awards 2020.
The application is now available in 22 languages of which many are spoken in Africa – such as isiXhosa, isiZulu, Ibo, Pidgin, Yoruba, Swahili, Hausa, French, Arabic and Portuguese. In a writt en response, MTN said it was a responsible corporate citizen and upholds good and proper corporate governance and takes the allegations “very seriously”.
“MTN Group, including MTN South Africa, is aware of the complaint and allegations made by Biza Telecoms. It seems that the matter dates several years and that the named MTN people are no longer employed by the company,” a spokesperson said. “Ayoba was developed by MTN in 2018 and product development eff orts were led by David Gilarranz, who was previous head of digital at MTN, having joined the company from Millicom in 2018.
“We have engaged with Biza Telecoms and have requested further information to substantiate and provide further details of its claims to enable us to investigate further.
Biza Telecoms has not responded to these requests.” Moloi, who is Biza’s CEO, could not be drawn to comment on the matter. Vodacom is also in court with its former employee, “Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate.
Makate has asked the court to set aside Vodacom’s R47-million offer as the Makate camp believes R10-billion represents a fair settlement.
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