Author: Gugu Lourie

The days of Netflix password sharing with friends may soon be over. In a blog post titled “Paying to Share Netflix Outside Your Household,” the company announced that it’s testing measures that would charge accounts extra for allowing users to stream outside of a given household. “We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” Chengyi Long, Netflix’s Director of Product Innovation, wrote in the blog. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when…

JSE-listed tech group EOH is offloading more assets as it continues with its stated strategic intent of improving liquidity and reducing debt. EOH informed investors today that its wholly-owned subsidiary EOH Mthombo has entered into a share purchase agreement to dispose of 100% of its shares in the Information Services companies to Bachique 842 Proprietary Limited. The deal is subject to EOH Shareholder approval. EOH added that this disposal forms part of creating a fit-for-purpose capital structure that is adequately supported by its cashflows. Bachique 842 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of LR Africa Holdings Limited. LR Africa Holdings Limited is…

Nedbank, one of the top banks in the Southern Africa region with over 7 million customers, last September launched an intelligent digital assistant, called Enbi. Nedbank is committed to delivering market-leading solutions to its customers that improve client satisfaction levels. Nedbank announced this week that Enbi, its new artificial intelligence (AI)-driven chatbot, which was launched to meet client expectations for immediate and excellent personal assistance, now answers over 100 000 client enquiries a month. Enbi offers Nedbank’s customers an intelligent, insightful, and friction-free digital banking experience by assisting customers conversationally with their day-to-day banking needs and questions. Customers can find…

Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, announced today that its Money App has attracted more than 400 000 new customers in 2021. The bank said that its Monet app is now actively used by 1, 6 million clients for the year to end-December 2021, up by 38% from 2020. The Money App, which was first launched in September 2019, makes banking more convenient for retail clients. It’s an easy-to-use, on-the-go banking app that enables you to do all your banking on your smartphone or tablet. Nedbank added that transaction volumes on the Money app rose by 54% and transaction values…

MTN digital revenue rose by 22.8% to R3.3 billion in the year to end-December 2021 and the majority of the increase is due to greater uptake of the services of Ayoba, an instant messaging super app. MTN announced today that Ayoba reached 11.6 million monthly active users’ milestone as at 31 December 2021. “This represents an addition of 6.1 million users since December 2020.” MTN launched its instant messaging platform, Ayoba, in March 2019. The app features peer-to-peer private messaging, which is end-to-end encrypted and has been updated to include music, gaming, channels and money transfer services Ayoba users can…

MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone company, reported it had 56.8 million mobile money (MoMo) customers as of the end of December 2021. The company said it added 10.4 million new MoMo users, reflecting a 22.6% rise compared to 2020. MTN said MoMo is generating a monthly Average Revenue Per User of $1.3. MTN added that the value of MoMo transactions was up by 56.8% to $239.4 billion or R3.6 trillion and 10 billion transactions were processed, up 41.1% year on year. “There were some reductions in pricing in markets such as Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon due to competitive dynamics, as…

South Africa’s Telkom announced today its board has resolved to postpone a separate listing of Swiftnet on the JSE. Telkom announced last September its plans to float Swifnet, a masts and towers business. “Given the recent global events, current market conditions and the impact on the Capital Markets, the board has resolved to postpone the separate listing of Swiftnet on the JSE,” Telkom informed investors on Wednesday. “The Board remains committed to its value unlock strategy which is premised on Telkom’s market capitalisation not representing its intrinsic value. “Against this backdrop, the board continues to consider all strategic options that…

South Africa’s Telkom wants the High Court in Pretoria to impose a “structural or supervisory” interdict on the country’s communications watchdog, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA). “A structural or supervisory interdict is justified in the circumstances of this case,” Telkom regulatory affairs boss Siyabonga Mahlangu said a filing to the High Court lodged on Monday. Telkom is challenging ICASA’s spectrum auction process, which started today. Earlier last month, Telkom asked the High Court to review and set aside ICASA’s plan to issue a new spectrum via an auction that had been slated for March, citing a number of…

South African startup Credit Builder has secured funding for an innovative pilot to develop Africa’s bespoke financial inclusion solutions.  The startup, which is a Pentech Africa Group Holdings Company, is headed up by Co-Founder and Group CEO, Thomas Ngubane. Ngubane is an ex-divisional director within the Standard Bank Group of companies and ex-key individual of Liberty Life South Africa. Credit Builder has been awarded Top Insurance Innovation 2022 in South Africa through the Insurance Innovation Challenge, funded through the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (INSETA) and The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an entity of the Department of Science and…

LinkedIn announced today it had entered into an agreement to acquire Oribi, an Israel-based marketing analytics company. As part of the agreement, LinkedIn will also open a new office in Tel Aviv, Israel expanding its international presence and helping to further scale the value it deliver to members and customers across the globe. “We will not be disclosing the financial terms of the deal,” said LinkedIn. LinkedIn Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, said as the company’s marketing solutions business accelerates to 43% year-over-year in revenue, “we are continuously investing in our technology platform to help our customers achieve maximum value…