Author: Gugu Lourie
By Gugu Lourie Vodacom Business Africa targets opportunistic growth in Morocco, Nigeria and Zambia Vodacom Business Africa is currently targeting growth in Nigeria and Zambia as part of its customer-led investment strategy. The firm is also looking at expanding into Morocco, where it is seeing a proliferation of multinationals setting up businesses. Vodacom Business Africa already has hubs in West, East and Southern Africa, but not yet in the North African region. The firm views Morocco as an important hub as many customers are moving or setting up operations there, chief officer of Vodacom Business at Vodacom Group, Vuyani Jarana, said.…
By Staff Writer HealthyFood Switch, which allows consumers to scan the barcode of a packaged food item and provides nutritional information on the energy, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, fibre, sodium and calcium of the product. Discovery Vitality in partnership with George Institute for Global Health has launched a novel nutrition mobile app known as HealthyFood Switch, which allows consumers to scan the barcode of a packaged food item and provides nutritional information on the energy, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, fibre, sodium and calcium of the product. The algorithm that governs the app displays nutrient composition either by a star…
By Staff Writer MTN has slashed the tariffs and extended the promotional period of its popular MTN Sky promotional period due to popular demand. The MTN Sky prepaid bundles have been extended to run until 31 December 2015, while the MTN Sky promotion has been extended until the 3rd of September 2015. MTN launched the MTN Sky tariff package in September last year. This package offers contract subscribers unlimited calls and SMSs and uncapped data in line with MTN’s quest of providing its customers with value and simplicity. Since MTN Sky was introduced to market last year, the tariff package…
By David J Galbreath The world today is facing some serious global challenges: creating sustainable development in the face of climate change, safeguarding rights and justice, and growing ethical markets, for a start. All of these challenges share some connection with science and technology – some more explicitly than others. We are currently witnessing a growth in traditional technology – with computers processing data in new and exciting ways. We’re also seeing the birth of transformative technology, such as bioengineering. But the question is not about old or new technology – rather, it is about how they are being…
By Gugu Lourie South African-based fleet management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, Mix Telematics, attracted 60, 000 new subscribers in the year-on-year, signing up for fleet management and asset tracking solutions. The company said on Thursday that growth in subscription revenue was driven primarily by an increase of over 60,000 subscribers, resulting in a rise in customers of 13.1% from June 2014 to June 2015. It grew its subscription revenue 15% to R271.8 million ($22.1 million). The firm added that hardware and other revenue was R72.3 million ($5.9 million) in the first quarter of financial year 2016 that ended on 30 June…
By Gugu Lourie MTN customers in South Africa are among the most avid users of streaming music services in Africa. The mobile phone operator said on Wednesday that its online music streaming platform Music+ has reached 9.3 million users. Through MTN Music+, MTN have created an app that is continuously updated with original local content that music lovers can have access to 24/7. There are three subscription packages for Music+ platform. The first one being a three-day package for only R10 including 50MB. The second one is a weekly subscription fee for only R25 including 150MB free data and,…
By Yudhvir Seetharam, head of analytics at FNB Business Starting and continuing to run a successful business has always been a difficult task for any entrepreneur. While you may have a great idea, your business might not get the kick start it deserves due to issues either in or out of your control. With the age of data upon us, businesses need to go back to the basics of what they see on paper, instead of relying solely on intuition and gut feel. The typical areas a business should focus on: Sales; Finance; Operations; Product; Legal; Marketing and HR…
By Gugu Lourie MTN, which gets most of its more than R60 billion in revenues from mobile phone services, is betting big on ecommerce in Africa and the Middle East and has up its stake in Africa Internet Holdings (AIH). The mobile phone operator said on Wednesday in its interim financial results that it has exercised its rights to increase its investment in AIH to 41% from 33, 3%. The Group continues to retain joint control over AIH. The firm, which operates in Africa and the Middle East, didn’t disclose how much it spent to buy an additional…
By Gugu Lourie MTN South Africa, the country’s second biggest mobile phone operator, said the business continues to show encouraging growth in service revenue, driven mainly by data revenue despite total revenue dropping by 1.4% to R18.8 billion in the six months to end-June 2015. The mobile operator attributed the poor performance to industrial action that took the company months to resolve and led to the departure of its CEO Ahmad Farroukh, who was replaced by Mteto Nyati. The strike took place between 20 May 2015 and 16 July 2015 The firm also blamed handset supply chain challenges for…
By Gugu Lourie MTN South Africa on Wednesday announced its earnings for the six months to end-June 2015 and revealed that data users on its network was up 18.1% to 17.3 million. The country’s second biggest mobile operator by customers added that the number of smartphones on its network rose 9.1% to 5.8 million. The cellular operator said the growth in smartphones and data users was constrained by low handset availability, “Corrective measures have been implemented to improve handset sales,” the firm said on Wednesday. MTN and Vodacom are bringing out their own-branded devices, including tablets and…