Author: Gugu Lourie
Africa is coming online rapidly. Internet penetration in the continent is growing faster than in any other region in the world, giving millions more people access to better communication, information and business opportunities. Although only around 20% of people in Africa have internet access (compared to a global average of 40%), this has increased from less than 5% ten years ago. By Gareth Tyson What’s missing, however, is a significant amount of locally created, owned and hosted online services. For example, there are just 12 secure web servers for every million people in Africa, compared to 1,171 in North America. Instead…
South Africans will soon get their medication from self-service “ATM-style” machines. This was one of the announcements made by the South African Ministry of Health today at 21st International Aids Conference taking place this week in Durban. The Pharmacy Dispensing Unit (PDU), currently being piloted at Thembalethu clinic in Johannesburg, is a self-service machine where patients can obtain their medication in the same way people withdraw money at an ATM, a process that most South African are familiar with. To use the machine, all a patient needs to do is register for the service, after which they receive a card…
Absa has launched ChatBanking for Facebook Messenger to enable customers to conduct their banking without ever having to leave their favourite social media platform. By Staff Writer The launch of the secure, private and fully integrated banking service on Facebook Messenger follows soon after the introduction of Absa ChatBanking on Twitter in May this year. As part of the offering, Absa customers will be able to use Facebook Messenger as well as Twitter to conduct the following transactions: Get the actual and available balance on their transactional account Buy airtime or data for the cellphone registered to their account Get…
MTN Business today announced a new drive to help support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and contribute to creating sustainable entities. The MTN Business’ new and ambitious programme will see it provide a R2.5 million per annum grant to an SME empowerment programme, the National Gazelles for the next three years. The National Gazelles is a flagship programme of the Department of Small Business Development and its main delivery agency, the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). The programme identifies a group of 40 businesses every year to benefit from an integrated business development programme aimed at accelerating…
Despite the fact that Pokémon Go has become the world’s biggest mobile game, it has already started its certain decline. This is despite the fact that the game is showing a greater ability to retain users than most mobile games. By David Glance Although it may be stating the obvious that all mobile games will eventually become less popular, it is the way in which this attrition of users happens which turns out to be absolutely constant. Craig Palli of Fiksu has shown that user retention decline in games follows a distinct pattern. The figure below is for 5 games, each…
Mobile phone operator MTN revealed on Tuesday that its profits for the six months to end-June 2016 will be negatively impacted by a massive fine imposed by the Nigerian authorities and under-performance of its South African operation. By Staff Writer The cellphone giant said the Nigerian regulatory fine is expected to have an estimated negative impact of 474 cents on Headline earnings per share (HEPS), which is a main profit gauge in South Africa. The company added that MTN Nigeria’s performance was impacted by the disconnection of 4,5 million subscribers in February 2016, the final batch of subscribers to be…
The Daimler Buses and its brands Mercedes-Benz and Setra are moving into the future of urban mobility solutions and bringing semi-automated driving. The partially-autonomous Mercedes-Benz Future Bus with CityPilot shows what that future will look like. It is neither a concept nor a visionary vehicle, it is reality: the town bus of tomorrow has already successfully concluded its testing in real traffic situations. By Staff Writer The Mercedes-Benz Future Bus with CityPilot is making its first public journey on part of Europe’s longest BRT route (BRT = Bus Rapid Transit) in the Netherlands. It is being presented in semi-automated driving on Airport Line 300 from Haarlem…
Absa launched the Absa Masterpass App, a digital wallet powered by Mastercard, enabling South Africans to make safe and easy payments wherever Masterpass is accepted. Payments via the Absa Masterpass App currently gives people the power to make online purchases using the digital wallet on their smartphones, without needing to carry their bank cards with them. Absa customers will also soon be able to do in-store shopping using Absa Masterpass, with a variety of merchants presently being signed up. Consumers can store all their MasterCard or other branded credit, debit or cheque card information, and shipping and billing address details…
Internet TV service ShowMax, which was launched in August 2015, has reached 10 million views less than a year after it was launched. By Staff Writer In total, more than five million hours of content have been viewed, the equivalent of more than 500 years if played back-to-back. “We knew we had a good product and an incredible engineering team when we launched ShowMax, but hitting this milestone in under a year is tangible proof that we’re on the right track,” said Barron Ernst, Chief Product Officer for ShowMax. “The positive reception we’ve had so far has come from listening…
Chinese search giant Baidu is making an undisclosed investment in a US-based fintech firm ZestFinance, Fortune reported on Monday. ZestFinance, which also last year received an undisclosed investment from Chinese e-commerce site JD.com, is a start-up that blends machine learning with big data analysis to pinpoint more accurate credit scores. ZestFinance launched three years ago to apply big data analyses to credit scoring and help lenders more accurately evaluate prospective borrowers. It was founded by former Google veteran Douglas Merrill. As part of the investment, Fortune said Baidu will be using ZestFinance’s underwriting technology to determine creditworthiness of its users. For…