South African headquartered mobile social network Mxit has joined the Digital Media and Marketing Association (DMMA), after the instant messaging service changed its user reporting methods last year.

The DMMA is an independent, non-profit, voluntary association that measures the likes of website traffic in South Africa. Members include the likes of this website ITWeb Africa.

The association uses measurement provider Effective Measure to help monitor the likes of website traffic levels. But it also uses surveys on member websites to attain demographic data about visitors.

And now that Mxit has joined the DMMA, the association further plans to gain more access to audience data for mobile users as well, according to a statement.

The DMMA plans to use Mxit to focus on running more reader surveys on mobile: a move that the association says is expected to make it easier to track user demographics of handset users.

“Mxit functions on over 8,000 different mobile devices, and a mechanism is being developed that will allow the DMMA audience survey to appear on cellphones that have the mobile network,” says the DMMA in a statement.

“Data gathered from these surveys will then be weighted against the AMPS (All Media and Products Survey) universe to provide a realistic audience picture, and Mxit apps will also appear on the EM (Effective Measure) leader boards,” explains the DMMA.

The move by Mxit to join the DMMA comes after it changed its user reporting methods last year from 90 day cycles to 30 days, after the service’s former chief executive officer Alan Knott-Craig Jr dramatically quit from his post.

Andrew Kramer, vice president of sales for Mxit, explains the relevance of the change in its reporting standards: “Since the new Mxit management took over at the end of 2012, we have been very clear that from a reporting perspective we want to fall in line with industry standards.”

“To reflect this, we have moved our user numbers reporting from past 90 days to past 30 days and shifted all advertising formats onto CPM (cost per mile) and CPC (cost per click) pricing.

“Joining the DMMA is part of this process of conforming to the accepted norms of the digital marketing sector. We understand that as one of the biggest players in the mobile space, it is vital for all parties that we are on board,” says Kramer in a statement.

Mxit officials told ITWeb Africa earlier this year that the service has 7.4 million active monthly users across Africa of which 6.5 million active monthly users are in South Africa.