Author: Gugu Lourie
Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels, the company announced in a blog post. The company said from October 1, 2022, you will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled Live Shopping events on Facebook. You will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but you won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in your Facebook Live videos. Shifting focus to Reels “As consumers’ viewing behaviours are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram,…
Vodacom Group has again demonstrated its resilience in the face of increasing pressure on consumers, increasing revenue by 5.2% to R26.1 billion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said revenue growth was underpinned by a resilient financial performance in most of our markets and South Africa in particular. “Our service revenue growth was supported by a 10.4% increase from our International portfolio and 9.3% growth from our financial services business. The growth rate in financial services was dampened by mobile money levies in Tanzania, and if adjusted for this impact would have been an…
THElatest data released today shows that the value of Vodacom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, continues to rise at an impressive rate, with transaction values exceeding R5.7 trillion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Vodacom also informed investors that M-PESA had attracted 807 000 new customers. M-Pesa revenue grew 11.8% to R1.4 billion and was up 3.4% on a normalised basis. The company added that excluding the impact of the mobile money levies in Tanzania, normalised M-Pesa revenue increased 18.1%, highlighting the strong underlying growth momentum in customer and product adoption. “We added 807 000 M-Pesa customers in the quarter, with…
Vodacom announced today that its Super App, VodaPay, has added 300 000 new users in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. The VodaPay super app is available for download from Apple and Android app stores. VodaPay delivers a digital shopping, lifestyle and financial platform for consumers and businesses. “The rapid adoption rate of our VodaPay super-app in South Africa remains encouraging with 2.8 million downloads and 1.9 million registered users by quarter end,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. “Given VodaPay is a precursor to M-Pesa’s evolution and further strengthens our fintech position across our footprint, we remain confident about the…
The Council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) today announced the appointment of Dr Charley Lewis as the Acting Chairperson. His appointment is effective from 16 July 2022 to 03 April 2023, or until a Chairperson is appointed. The appointment of Lewis comes as ICASA bids farewell to its outgoing Chairperson, Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng, whose last day in office is today. The appointment of the Acting Chairperson is informed by the provisions of section 5(2) of the ICASA Act which provides that “in the absence of the Chairperson, the remaining Councillors must, from their number, elect an…
South Africa’s MTN announced today that it is in early talks to buy Telkom, the partially state-owned fixed-line telephone operator. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement it had entered into discussions to buy the entire issued share capital of Telkom in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. “Discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty that the Transaction will be consummated,” stated MTN. “The board of directors of MTN (Board), individually and collectively, accept full responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained in this announcement and certify…
Today, InterNations publishes its Expat Insider 2022 survey, one of the world’s most comprehensive surveys about living and working abroad with nearly 12,000 survey respondents. Overall, the survey report analyzes 52 destinations around the globe, ranking the best and worst countries for expats and offering in-depth information on expats’ satisfaction with the Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, and Personal Finance in their respective country of residence. For the first time, the ranking also includes the new Expat Essentials Index, which covers digital life, admin topics, housing, and language Safety & Security Are Main Concerns for Expats…
Bdeo, a provider of Visual Intelligence solutions for the insurance industry, announced that it has expanded its relationship with Hollard and officially launched in the South African market. The two companies entered into a strategic collaboration to help streamline Hollard’s entire end-to-end motor claims assessment and damage repair process. Bdeo’s Visual FNOL technology allows Hollard policyholders to gather evidence of motor insurance claims through a self-guided image and video capture solution and deliver the information to Hollard Assessors in real-time to perform remote assessments. Bdeo’s Visual Estimate technology also estimates damage costs, enabling Hollard Assessors to generate assessment reports and…
MTN South Africa Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe takes the helm at MTN Rwanda, bringing with her more than 15 years’ experience with MTN, including in Uganda. She has a strong background in commercial strategy, consumer marketing, customer strategy, brand management and communications, product management and customer analytics. Sylvia Mulinge becomes MTN Uganda CEO, joining from Safaricom, where she served as Chief Consumer Business Officer for the Group. A seasoned executive, she brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology. Mulinge replaces Wim Vanhelleputte, who will take on the new MTN Group role of Operations Executive: Markets.…
As load shedding escalates across the country, MTN South Africa is working around the clock to protect customers’ connectivity, with an aggressive rollout of batteries, generators and alternate power supplies. MTN is also reaching out to small businesses to supply generators for its operations. Charles Molapisi, MTN SA CEO, says MTN’s priority is keeping its customers connected and to this end, the company is exploring practical and innovative solutions to the power crisis. “There is no doubt the country is facing a power crisis but at MTN, we want to turn this crisis into an opportunity for small businesses by…
Today, Prosus and Naspers announced the start of an open-ended share repurchase programme of Prosus and Naspers shares. This programme will be funded by regularly selling small numbers of Tencent shares and is designed to efficiently unlock immediate value for shareholders and increase NAV per share over time. The programme will be active as long as the discount to NAV is at elevated levels. Prosus, the Dutch-based technology investor controlled by South Africa’s Naspers, said the programme is designed to increase net asset value per share, taking advantage of both Prosus’s and Naspers’s trading discounts to their underlying net asset…
Takealot, the country’s largest e-commerce platform, reported today a trading loss of $7 million or R111 million, or a 1% trading loss margin, for the year to end-March 2022 similar to the 2021 financial year. The Naspers-owned retailer said it remained near breakeven. Despite increased competitive pressure from bricks-and-mortar retailers, Superbalist, one of South Africa’s leading online fashion destinations, delivered strong revenue growth of 55% and improved its trading loss margin by almost 2 percentage points to 7% during the year. Mr D benefited from increasing awareness of online food delivery, a slower recovery of the restaurant market, and shifting…
South Africa’s internet behemoth Naspers announced today it has sold close to $4 billion or R63 billion worth of stock in JD.com that it received as dividends from investee Tencent. Tencent is China’s largest social media company. Naspers said its subsidiary Prosus, though its unit MIH TC Holdings sold 131.8 million shares in JD it got from Tencent, representing 4% shareholding in the Chinese retailer. JD.com is a leading supply chain-based technology and service provider. Its e-commerce business includes online retail and online marketplace. In the online retail business, JD.com acquires products from suppliers and sells them directly to customers…
Wingcopter, the German delivery drone manufacturer and service provider, today announced that it has raised $42 million or R672 million from renowned financial and strategic investors. The new funding is part of a Series A extension round, tripling the company’s total equity raise to more than $60 million or R960 million to date. Leading German retailer REWE Group as well as German investors Salvia and XAI technologies came on board as new shareholders. They were joined by Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU and previous backers Futury Capital from Germany and Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital. Drone Delivery has gained enormous momentum in the…
Southern Africa is the fastest region in Africa in terms of median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Wednesday. “When it comes to speeds in select African capital cities, Johannesburg was fastest with a median download speed of 65.54 Mbps — nearly 35% faster than that of the next-fastest city, Cape Town at 48.27 Mbps,” says Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Industry Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla. She added that Gaborone stood out…
Discovery Bank announced today that it will offer Vitality Pay as you Gym to all Discovery clients, including those with a Discovery Account. This is part of making physical activity more accessible for all Discovery clients. It’s easy to use and clients can access more than 170 Virgin Active and Planet Fitness clubs nationwide. Clients simply go to a club, scan the QR code at the entrance, seamlessly pay the access fee of between R75 and R100 (depending on the facility) from either a Discovery Bank transaction account, credit card or using Discovery Miles, and enjoy their workout. As an introductory special…
Over the past year, Discovery Bank has seen strong deposit growth and considerable traction of its shared-value banking model amongst its client base; the appeal of a full service, shared value, digital bank is reflected in Discovery Bank’s strong growth to over 1 million accounts since its public launch in 2020. Discovery Bank has firmly established itself as the leading digital bank in South Africa, operating a full-service branchless bank through its banking app that caters for the full spectrum of the retail market, driving high levels of client engagement, utilisation and value. This value is reflected in the one…
Virgin Active SA announced today that it has appointed Jessica Spira as managing director as of 1 October 2022. This follows the announcement in March of the appointment of Dean Kowarski as the group CEO of Virgin Active globally. Spira, a CA, is a senior investment banking executive with over 22 years of experience in strategic business development, relationship management and deal origination in both debt and equity markets. She joined Rand Merchant Bank in 2001 and now heads the bank’s healthcare and hospitality sector. Kowarski said, “With Jessica as MD and a strong team, Virgin Active South Africa…
Independent investment company Fledge Capital is on the hunt for acquisitions after selling its stake in WeBuyCars. Fledge Capital provides capital solutions to private companies across a wide range of industries. Fledge was founded in 2010 by Louis van der Watt and Konrad Fleischhauer. Together and on their own, they have a track record of investing in unlisted businesses. They sought to formalise their relationship into an investment vehicle, which led to the establishment of Fledge Capital. In 2017, African Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC) became a shareholder in Fledge. ARC is the listed investment vehicle of Patrice Motsepe, the well-known South African industrialist,…
Digital bank TymeBank disclosed on Friday that it is sustaining the momentum of acquiring about 130 000 customers per month. African Rainbow Capital (ARC) said in an update to investors that TymeBank is also making headway in increasing the number of customers with active accounts, which has proved to be challenging, given the tough economic environment with added pressure on consumers. Internationally, TymeBank’s fellow subsidiary company, Tyme Global, based in Singapore, is set to launch a digital bank called GOtyme in the Philippines in October 2022 with its local partners, the Gokongwei family, added ARC. In May 2022, TymeBank announced…
JSE-listed retailer TFG, formerly known as The Foschini Group, reported a 11.7% rise in online retail turnover to R4.4 billion for the year ended March 2022. The retailer said online retail turnover contributed 10,2% to total group retail turnover, evidencing the continuing strong online demand for all its brands. The company added that TFG Africa saw a 18% growth in online retail turnover and now contributes 3,1% to total TFG Africa retail turnover. TFG London reported a 13.8% increase in online retail turnover and now contributes 45,2% to total TFG London retail turnover. The group added that TFG Australia online…
Discovery Bank said on Friday it would immediately refund Vitality clients affected by Comair shutdown. Comair operates Kulula.com and British Airways. “We are saddened by the news released earlier today advising that Comair, one of our longest standing Vitality partners, has stopped operations,” said Discovery Bank. “To assist our clients, for any Vitality member who is a Discovery Bank client and booked a discounted flight departing from 1 June 2022 onwards that has been cancelled due to this issue, Discovery Bank will automatically refund the amount spent on that flight into the Vitality member’s Discovery Bank account by close of…
South Africa’s retailer Mr Price announced today that its Financial Services segment recorded a 6.2% in revenue for the year to end-April 2022. Mr Price said the Financial Services segment revenue increased 6.2% to R697 million. The retailer added that debtors’ interest and fees increased 5.6%, and reported double-digit growth in H2 due to a higher average debtors’ book and a 75bps increase in the repo rate. “The group’s strict credit granting criteria and strong collections and recovery performances positively impacted the portfolio, reflected by the net bad debt to book percentage decreasing to 6.0%, adequately covered by the impairment…
South African retailer Mr Price, which uses cellular handsets and accessories to drive footfall traffic into its stores and online platforms, reported strong growth from its telecoms segment in the year to the end-April 2022. The retailer said the Telecoms segment exceeded one billion Rand in revenue for the first time, increasing 34.4% to R1.2 billion. Mr Price Cellular, launched in 2017, has reported exponential growth since inception and is now available in 374 stores with promising growth opportunities, most notably the rollout of standalone stores. Cellular handsets and accessories gained 130bps of market share, according to Growth for Knowledge (190bps including Powercell in Power Fashion),…
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) announced on Wednesday that its chairperson Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng has step down to take some time-off after an enervating period. “It is with great regret that ICASA informs the public of the resignation of our Chairperson, Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng,” ICASA said in a statement. The Chairperson, who cited a need to take some time-off after an enervating period, tendered his resignation today, and will commence serving notice to ensure a smooth handover, said ICASA. After a much-needed break, he will consider future options. Dr Modimoeng joined ICASA in April 2016 and has over…