Mivasocial
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Social networking service, E-commerce |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | Jean-Marc Kouevidjin |
| Headquarters | Lawrenceville , United States |
Area served | Africa and African diaspora worldwide |
| Products | Social networking platform, Mivashop (e-commerce), Mivachat (messaging app) |
| Owner | Happy Way LLC |
Mivasocial operates as an online social networking site designed specifically for African communities around the globe. The term Miva originates from the Ewe/Mina/Guin dialects spoken in Togo, translating to "Come," which makes Mivasocial signify "Come socialize."
Established in 2013, Mivasocial is a property of Happy Way LLC, headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. The founders report that by 2021, the platform had attracted more than 15 million users. In 2019, Mivasocial launched an e-commerce feature named Mivashop, aimed at enabling African entrepreneurs to set up online stores; this service currently caters exclusively to the Togolese market.
Founding and history
The origins of Mivasocial trace back to 2011 with the creation of Star53 by Jean-Marc Kouevidjin, intended as a social network to foster African advancement. The name Star53 represented the 53 African nations envisioned as stars to be explored.
After surpassing 100,000 members in 2012, Star53 encountered technical difficulties that necessitated a platform overhaul. In 2013, it was reintroduced in beta form as Togosocial, concentrating on the Togolese audience and initially developed with PHP coding by Kouevidjin.
By July 2015, the platform broadened its reach across Africa under the new brand Mivasocial, delivering a unified pan-African network alongside country-specific communities.
Within three years, Mivasocial amassed approximately 250,000 registered users and pursued funding between $1 million and $10 million to support accelerated expansion.
Kouevidjin’s founding mission focused on empowering African youth while showcasing African culture and potential on a global scale through the platform.
Target audience and demography
Mivasocial caters to a worldwide audience, offering free membership to individuals and enterprises with interests related to Africa. It functions as an entry point into African markets, drawing mainly users from Africa itself and its diaspora. Upon signing up, members choose their preferred African country network and language option—currently available in French or English.
Users are able to build profiles, establish "friend" connections, follow news feeds, send private messages, share posts and multimedia content, write blogs, and utilize various applications featuring instant notifications. They can participate in interest-based groups called PACs that are organized by workplace, educational institution, or other categories to facilitate networking either continent-wide or within particular countries. The platform provides strong privacy settings along with a dedicated messaging app called Mivachat that allows blocking or reporting of unwanted contacts without requiring sensitive personal information such as phone numbers or addresses.
Mivasocial allows members to direct content specifically to individual African countries or across the entire continent. Reviews from Jeune Afrique emphasize its distinctive role for Africa amidst competition from major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Jumia.
On January 23, 2017, Mivasocial officially debuted in the Ivory Coast under the name Mivasocial Cote d'Ivoire.