Author: Contributor

by Victor Odundo Owuor When one talks about young Africans using smartphones, the dominant narrative is that these gadgets serve mostly as platforms for connection so that users can communicate and share greetings and information via text and images. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and Signal take pride of place in that description, despite their murkier side. What has perhaps been overlooked is how smartphones are also affecting other facets of young people’s lives. One area is the ever-growing community of sports betting in Africa. The phenomenon of sports betting among African youths has taken the region by storm. Recent polls…

Brewer SAB is one of the only businesses in the world, and the first in South Africa, to introduce environmentally friendly Core Linerless Solutions labels for its product packaging. The labels, which have no release liner, were developed in partnership with Ritrama, and completely suppress the waste of the release liner of older self-adhesive labels.   Ritrama, an Italian private multinational with a South African-based business, is considered a market leader in design, distribution and manufacture of self-adhesive products. The new Core Linerless Solutions labels will help reduce the group’s impact on the environment by 57 tonnes/yr. The perforated Core Linerless…

by Allison Gardner, Keele University Researchers recently produced an algorithm that could guess whether heart patients had lived or died from their condition within a year. By looking at data from a test of the heart’s electrical activity known as an electrocardiogram or ECG, the algorithm successfully predicted patient survival in 85% of cases. But its developers couldn’t explain how the algorithm did this. Its stated purpose was to find previously unknown information that doctors couldn’t see in ECGs. Developed by US healthcare provider Geisinger, the algorithm was trained using 1.7 million ECG results from 400,000 patients, including some who…

by Ryan Hawthorne and Lukasz Grzybowski Mobile services have had an important and positive impact on developing countries where they are the main means of connecting to the internet. However, mobile services have capacity constraints. They use limited radio frequency spectrum, which means that mobile data typically has usage limits. They also have high prices per unit (per gigabyte), which results in lower use per connection. Fixed-line broadband, on the other hand, has significantly lower prices per unit. It is often offered on an uncapped or unlimited basis, and therefore has higher usage per connection. This enables a wider range of…

South Africa’s leading eCommerce group expects to ship at least one order every second, with roughly 10 000 boxes leaving their warehouses every hour this shopping season. Black Friday was first introduced to South Africa by Takealot in 2012, and has since become an important day in South Africa’s annual retail calendar. It has been a record-breaker for both of the retailers in the Takealot Group: Takealot and Superbalist. Takealot’s Black Friday gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 125% from 2017 to 2018, with orders up 127%. Superbalist’s Black Friday GMV has grown on average around 50%. This year, CEO Kim…

by Basebone Is it a phone? Is it a tablet? Actually, it’s both. It’s a folding phone – and it’s this year’s big handset trend. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, Huawei’s Mate X and Motorola’s re-booted Razr are setting the pace. Will they succeed? On November 13, Motorola will host a launch party in LA for a new phone. It says the event will unveil a product that is ‘an original unlike any other’. Really? If the inside gossip is to be believed, the new phone will be the Razr. https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/motorola-razr-2019-price-release-date-specs-3646133 Not exactly ‘original’. Moto launched its first Razr 15 years ago.…

by Byron Clatterbuck Any good business decision-maker knows that change is inevitable and rather than fighting the unavoidable, one should lean into the discomfort of disruption. Flexibility and a willingness to embrace change are two valuable assets that will serve any business well on its transformation journey. But, given today’s evolving nature of the business, what exactly should an organisation be prioritising to futureproof the company and set up growth? I believe digital migration and business consolidation are two of the best places to start. Seacom has itself, over the past few years, made significant moves to transform into a…

by Basebone Everywhere you go on the web, an army of companies are tracking you. Now the browser companies are starting to block them. Is this the birth of a new private web? Or will it just make the trackers even sneakier? Over the years, the browser companies competed over which product was faster or had the best features. Now they’re all pretty amazing. Whichever you pick – Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Firefox – you can be sure the experience will be great. So is there anything left to differentiate them? Yes, there is: privacy. Recently, the battle to…

by Andrew Schmulow South Africa’s regulatory regime for the financial services sector is going through major changes. The question is whether companies can adapt to a principles-based approach. Or will they default back to rules-based compliance during the implementation of the Conduct of Financial Institutions Act? The aim of the new law is to improve financial sector conduct and ensure fairer outcomes, particularly for customers. There are strong arguments that a business that prioritises the values of good conduct will be rewarded with loyal customers. They, in turn, have a high degree of trust in the business, and are more…

by Rune Werliin On November 12, Disney launched its long-awaited streaming service Disney+ in the US, Canada and the Netherlands. With content ranging from Disney and Pixar classics to movies in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, it’s hard to believe that Disney+ won’t be a success. But what exactly can we expect when Disney+ is entering the market? In our new study, we reveal the impact Disney’s new streaming service will have on the market in the US, UK, Germany and Nordics. High level of purchase intent Despite the fact that Disney+ has just gone live in the US…