WeChat Africa invests in micro-jobbing service M4JAM

M4JAM, a mobile service that pays job seekers for completing short tasks like answering surveys or confirming addresses, has secured investment from instant messaging service WeChat Africa. The size of the investment has not been disclosed.

M4JAM launched in August last year and uses WeChat to connect companies looking to have small jobs done with individuals in need of employment and pays up to R30 per completed job. More than 7000 jobs were completed within the service’s first 24 hours of operation.

WeChat Africa, which is a joint venture between Naspers and Tencent, says the investment will help M4JAM expand its South African market and expand into other regions. Brett Loubser, head of WeChat Africa, says the messaging service has “several other start-ups” launching this year, too.

“M4JAM challenges the status quo enabling companies to rapidly gather data, perform mystery shopping, manage merchandising audits, improve product education and promote brand activation whilst soliciting real consumer insights at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods,” says Andre Hugo, M4JAM co-founder.

“WeChat’s investment allows us to focus on building our business while they provide the community that helps enable our success,” Hugo says, adding that M4JAM settled on WeChat as its communication mechanism between employers and individuals “because the social communications app offers a fast and easy deployment platform”.

Hugo suggests that WeChat’s existing presence in a number of other markets will make M4JAM’s entry to them far easier.