Similarly, Facebook and Twitter send login credentials over a secure line and then revert to an unsecure protocol. (Users of those social networks can add an "s" after "http" to force the systems to encrypt their browsing.) Social networking sites are where people increasingly conduct private conversations, whether through Facebook's Messages or Twitter's Direct Message feature.
Through its own standard protocol, Mxit subscribers can also connect to other social networks and instant messaging applications such as Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ.
According to research by Strategy Analytics, a market research company, over 90 percent of feature phone owners in the US and UK are interested in downloading and installing applications such as SNS (Social Networking Service), IM (Instant Messenger), VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and navigation and mapping.