Author: Gugu Lourie
Vodacom reached nearly 4 million music lovers with Influencer Marketing – Webfluential. It created online talkability for the music streaming service Deezer, a Vodacom partner streaming partner, through social media influencers such as LiveSA, YoMzansi, Da L.E.S, Luthando Sosha, Slikouronlife and The Fuss. By Taryn Hyam, Webfluential’s marketing communications manager. Vodacom wanted to increase awareness with various youth, entertainment and music audiences on why they should consider music streaming and why Vodacom Deezer is the best option.With Deezer being an online download, the objective was to create the conversation online where potential users could access the download easily.To achieve the goal of igniting…
Telcos dominate the mobile payments industry across Africa. Banks need to move out of catch-up mode. By Ria Pinto, Director, Financial Services Sector, IBM Africa truly is the mobile continent. Consider the figures: some two-thirds of Africans have a mobile phone, and 600 million mobile devices can be found on the continent. However, Kenya aside—where 50 percent of citizens use mobile money for key payments—mobile commerce or m-commerce has been slower to take off. But as big investment in m-payments by South Africa’s big-four banks shows, the opportunity is substantial. M-commerce adoption will be driven by the high…
Continuing on its commitment to provide connectivity, at the best price, Vox Telecom has on Thursday announced that it is doubling all month-to-month Fat Pipe data bundles specifically for its Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) customers. By Staff Writer Available to Vox Telecom FTTH customers (new or existing), the promotional offer applies to month-to-month Fat Pipe data packages and is specific to non-Telkom Fibre-To-The-Home areas. “There is no doubt that the demand for high speed, quality, unshaped data is growing and is largely being driven by consumers wanting to download or stream high definition and soon, 4K Ultra High Definition movies…
Worldreader, a global literacy non-profit organisation, has teamed-up with one of the world´s most popular mobile browser Opera Software to try to offer free digital books to more than 10 million readers by the end of 2015. By Gugu Lourie The organisation has so far reached 5 million mobile readers in Africa. Globally, it has enabled over 6 million people in Asia, Africa and South America, to get access to, read and enjoy over 28,500 free digital books, via their mobile phones. The San Francisco-based organisation is dedicated to improving literacy in the developing world through digital books. Mobile…
By Gugu Lourie Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, is debuting Always On banking via WeChat social media platform – described as a first in South African banking with virtual bankers online 24/7. The banking group says Always On solutions gives its customer’s 24-hour access to a dedicated virtual banking team to enable always on banking anytime and anywhere. “We know how busy life can get. We understand that your daily time is limited and that this may affect your finances. Wouldn’t it be great to have a bank that is always available, whether it’s Friday night or Sunday…
FNB announced on Wednesday that money sent to recipients via its mobile money solution eWallet topped the R1 billion a month mark for the first time in July 2015. This is an increase of 66%, from R650 million sent in the July 2014, proving that mobile money is now a real replacement for person to person cash payments. By Staff Writer The bank said the first R1 billion took it two years to reach, and now people are sending R1 billion a month. It added the numbers are big, but the primary focus for it is to really impact…
SA’s tech start-ups are making it big globally as they push beyond their Cape Town and Johannesburg borders, and some are attracting big global investors. By Gugu Lourie South African tech start-ups are already making headlines globally and might be aiming to follow on the footsteps of South African born Elon Musk, who founded Paypal and later sold it to eBay to create exciting firms such as Tesla Motors and Space X. Other local start-up sold for billion dollars include a virtual gift card service firm, Gyft, founded by a South African Vinny Lingham. These start-ups are aiming to…
execMobile is preparing to expand into the roaming of things (Internet of Things) in a move aimed at capturing a sizeable share of the billion dollar market. By Gugu Lourie execMobile has been in business for five years. Based in South Africa the firm has been working on perfecting the art of keeping people connected in an “affordable, safe and convenient” way. Through its PocketWifi solution, execMobile helps travellers avoid massive international roaming costs for data. It allows users “easy and affordable” mobile data while travelling abroad and connects to superfast 3G networks in 149 countries. A traveller (individuals,…
The country’s third mobile phone operator Cell C, which is likely to be sold by its parent company DUBAI-based Oger Telecom if a good buyer is found, has introduced a promotional offer available on EasyChat prepaid tariff plan that offers customers free data with every R50 recharge. By Gugu Lourie Cell C is introducing a new prepaid promotion that provides customers with free data with every recharge “Every recharge of R50 and above will attract 3 X the recharge value in free MegaData on the EasyChat tariff plan,” Cell C said. The promotion will run from 1 September 2015 to 30…
The power of mobile cannot be underestimated, attributable to the fact that many people in South Africa remain unbanked, and a large percentage of the population owns a mobile / smart device. We have seen how M-Pesa has taken off in East Africa, and once regulations are cleared in South Africa, we’ll see more of this form of banking. By Tony Smith, CEO at Oxygen8 South Africa Banking is the second most popular category in the usage of mobile technology, having amassed 17.6% of all votes, according to the Oxygen8 report based on the survey on Mastering Multichannel Journeys.…