Author: Gugu Lourie

Amazon is buying MGM, the studio behind Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull and Robocop. The online retailer is spending $8,45 billion (R116 billion) to buy MGM Studios. The retailer owns Amazon Prime and this deal will complement the video streaming company. MGM’s vast library has over 4,000 beloved film titles, including 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many other icons. MGM has nearly a…

Telkom Mobile, South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator, wants to upend the prepaid mobile data market through affordable packages as part of its strategy to deliver value to its customers. In an interview with TechFinancials, Serame Taukobong, Telkom Consumer’s CEO, said Telkom Mobile was well-positioned for the prepaid mobile data space. “It’s about looking at the entire value chain. Most of the people don’t have the money to buy the 1GB mobile data,” said Taukobong. Telkom Mobile broadband traffic increased 53.2% to 942 petabytes in the year to end-March 2021, resulting in mobile data revenue growing by 41% to R12,2 billion…

Telkom’s Yep, a digital marketplace where customers can safely and confidently search and purchase from small, trusted businesses, is gaining traction with small businesses. “As at 31 March 2021, there were over 25 335 downloads across the Google Play, Apple and Huawei stores, with the desktop version attracting an average of 337 827 users per month,” according to the company’s results presentation. Last June, the company announced the launch of its latest innovation, Yep, on Google Play and Apple’s app store. The app is geared toward economic sustainability, creating a long-term future for small businesses. Users can locate businesses or…

aYo, a mobile micro-insurance joint venture between MTN and SA’s third-biggest insurer Momentum Metropolitan, saw unique customers enrolled grew 14% to 11.4 million as of 31 March 2021. Momentum Metropolitan disclosed the figures in its operational update for the nine months ended 31 March 2021. The insurer also said aYo is making steady progress in Ghana and Uganda. Following its Zambian launch, aYo achieved a 10 million enrolled customer milestone. aYo provides you with fast, convenient and easy to use insurance right on your cell phone. You enjoy hospital and life insurance cover through airtime deduction (Recharge with Care) or when you send MoMo (mobile…

Telkom announced today that its WhatsApp-Based Digital Wallet, Telkom Pay has attracted thousands of customers. Telkom Pay was launched last December to offer customers the ability to pay others and get paid themselves using their mobile phone through the WhatsApp messaging app to anyone on their contacts list. Sipho Maseko, the Telkom CEO, said on Monday that Telkom Pay digital wallet is progressing well with over 10, 000 subscribers. “It’s a good foundation to grow this platform significantly.” Telkom Pay also serves as a cashless Point of Sale (POS) payment option for businesses. Users with WhatsApp can add Telkom Pay on…

Telkom reported a 53.4% rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) to 561.5 cents a share for the year to end-March 2021, driven chiefly by the consistent performance of its mobile business. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. “A large portion of our growth is driven by the mobile business which has consistently outperformed expectations in the last five years,” Sipho Maseko, Telkom CEO, said on Monday. “We expect the mobile business to continue with its growth trajectory in absolute service revenue terms continuing to be the driver of growth, offsetting the decline in fixed voice which now contributes…

Openserve, Telkom’s network division, today reported that homes passed with fibre rose by 20.7% to 549 957 for the year to end-March 2021. The company attributed this to the need to consume multiple digital services, leading to increased data consumption, driven by a surge in data traffic across fixed fibre and carrier connectivity solutions. However, Telkom reported losing 318,000 fixed-line subscribers to 1.284 million in March 2021 versus 1.602 million in March 2020. As expected, Telkom also reported a significant decline in fixed broadband subscribers, dropping to 605,807 in March 2021 compared to 686,525 in March 2020. Also read: How Telkom is Slowly…

Balwin – a specialist, national residential property developer of large-scale, sectional title estates for South Africa’s growing low-to-middle income population – is synonymous with secure, affordable, high quality and environmentally-friendly developments. Apartments are designed to appeal to a wide range of home buyers, catering for a first-time, young professional, young family, older family, retirees, as well as buy-to-let investors. The company’s apartments include modern fitted kitchens, prepaid water and solar-assisted electricity, eco-friendly fittings and appliances, and fibre-enabled. The developer generates annuity income through subsidiary company Balwin Fibre which provides high-speed fibre connectivity to homeowners within Balwin’s estates. In 2017, the…

Africa is leading other continents when it comes to mobile money or FinTech, which has become big business for top mobile operators – MTN, Vodacom, and Airtel Africa. Database company, Statista, says for those people with no access to banking services, mobile money provides financial inclusion, a way to participate in the economy without a bank account. The use of mobile money in Africa, one of the most underbanked regions globally, has skyrocketed. In 2019, 200 million users made 24.46 billion mobile money transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Middle East and Northern Africa accounted for 64.15% of all transactions made worldwide. Of the $690.1…

MTN South Africa is looking for Mobile Money (MoMo) agents after receiving R28 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a unit of Word Bank. MTN will use the funds for MoMo’s agents’ recruitment drive. MoMo allows users to purchase airtime, prepaid electricity, and pay for their municipal bills and DSTV subscriptions. The partnership will also see a strong job employment drive and will see IFC and MTN South Africa seek to recruit 10 000 Mobile Money Agents in 2021 to increase access to affordable financial services in underserved communities. MTN will identify, recruit, enrol, train, and supervise the new MoMo agents and…

The number of electric cars on the road was expected to reach almost 10 million in 2020, as sales grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by International Energy Agency. However, South Africa lags in the sale of electric cars. Electric car sales in South Africa comprised only 92 units, or 0,02% of the total 380,206 vehicles sold in the domestic market in 2020, down from 154 units in 2019. This is according to a newly-published policy discussion paper by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) on the South African roadmap to the production of electric…

Bang & Olufsen, the Danish audio company, is introducing a new rugged portable speaker with 27 hours of battery life. The Beosound Explore, a tough and robust speaker created for adventure, will retail for about R3 400 at Bang & Olufsen stores and online. Designed with portability in mind, Beosound Explore’s cylindrical shell provides a secure grip and fits easily into rucksack pockets so you can stay focused on the track ahead. Despite its durable outer shell, the speaker is lightweight at 631 grams, letting you stay agile whilst on the move. With up to 27 hours of playtime at…

Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance – the owners of TikTok, will step down as CEO and transition to a new role. In an internal letter, ByteDance said co-founder and HR head Liang Rubo will become the new CEO. Yiming and Rubo will work side by side over the next six months to ensure the smoothest possible transition. “At the same time, there are still many things that we need to improve, and I think someone else can better drive progress through areas like improved daily management,” wrote Yiming in an internal letter. “The truth is, I lack some of the…

VodaBucks, a loyalty programme for Vodacom, has attracted 24 million unique customers in South Africa, says Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub. Vodacom introduced the VodaBucks Rewards Programme last September as a single platform to benefit loyal customers. Every time a customer achieves personalised behavioural goals, such as buying specific bundles using the Just-4-You platform or downloading and engaging with the My Vodacom App, the programme rewards them with VodaBucks – a unified virtual currency. In addition, customers can earn VodaBucks for the many things they already do, such as paying their Vodacom bill (including add-on data and voice bundles) and buying…

Vodacom said it is not yet considering selling any stake in its mobile money entity M-Pesa Africa. Instead, the Vodafone-owned entity aims to grow the business further. “We think it’s too early to have that conversation now,” Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said on Tuesday. “Maybe two, three years down the line it will be a different conversation because we still want to unlock value. “Because if you do it early, yes, we know we can get multiples of 25x and upwards, and we’ve had a lot of unsolicited offers coming through in that regard. But we’re not in that space…

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) has released a green paper on the South African roadmap to the production of electric vehicles. Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel, said the purpose of the green paper is to establish a clear policy foundation. He added that this will enable the country to coordinate a long-term strategy that will position South Africa at the forefront of advanced vehicle and vehicle component manufacturing. “The strategy is complemented by a consumption leg, and a focus on increasing competitiveness in the global race to transition from the internal combustion engine era, into…

By the end of the year, Google is bringing its Android Automotive operating system to more than ten car models from Volvo, General Motors and Renault. The Android Automotive operating system is an Android-based infotainment system that is built into vehicles. The car’s system is a stand-alone Android device that is optimised for driving. Google said in a statement that with the Android Automotive operating system, the entire infotainment system is powered by Android, and users can access Google Assistant, Google Maps, and more apps from Google Play directly from the car screen without relying on a phone. See a…

Vodacom’s total financial services customers, including Safaricom, rose by 12.9% or 6.6 million to 57.7 million in the year ended 31 March 2021. The Vodafone-owned telco said financial services now generates revenue of R19.3 billion. The group said service revenue generated from Financial Services was up by 18.9% to R2.4 billion. “Our Financial Services’ result reflects our execution capability in this space. Revenue growth was underpinned by our Airtime Advance product, where we advanced R12.0 billion in airtime during the year, an increase of 21.1%,”  said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. “The number of Airtime Advance customers increased 17.3% to…

Vodacom Business service revenue rose by 11.3% to R15.9 billion in the year to end-March 2021, supported by innovative work-from-home solutions. Vodacom announced today that fixed service revenue grew by 6.5%, excluding wholesale transit, supported by strong growth in cloud and hosting and connectivity revenue. The Vodafone-owned company added that Internet of Things (IoT) connections grew by 6.4% to 5.6 million, with revenue growth at 32.8% to R1.1 billion. The telco added that mobile contract customer revenue increased by 5% to R20.8 billion, a resilient performance given the economic backdrop. “Within the mobile contract segment, Vodacom Business continued to deliver…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

Cisco announced today plans to buy privately-held, U.S.-based Socio Labs, a modern event technology platform that provides event organizers with everything they need to successfully host in-person, virtual or hybrid events of any size and format. The purchase price was undisclosed. Together with Webex, Socio Labs and recently acquired audience engagement technology from Slido will enable Cisco Webex to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive hybrid event management solution. “The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “With that comes increased complexity of…