Just a few months after Netflix launched in African countries, one of its competitors, Showmax has followed in its footsteps and launched in 36 Sub Saharan countries. Showmax, which was launched last year in August and which is backed by Napsers will for $7.99 per month, provide unlimited viewing Internet TV services with approximately 15,000 TV show episodes. Barron Ernst, Chief Product Officer for Showmax said: “The speed and cost of connectivity are significant hurdles for any internet-based service in Africa. Getting it right means you’ve got to do much…
Read MoreMonth: May 2016
The 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigative Report (DBIR) Is Out
10 African countries featured including Kenya and South Africa The 2016 DBIR by Verizon has been released. The report has revealed that there has been a 16% increase in ransomware attacks over the last 12 months, ItNewsAfrica reports. According to the DBIR, 89% of attacks involved financial or espionage motivations. Financial motivations were a clear catalyst. Because of the organizations that are being targeted and how prevalent ransomware has become, ransomware is a hot topic. Businesses have a higher degree of risk attached to them even though every individual is susceptible to…
Read MoreQ&A: DCA Trust Founder on Status of .Africa & Why Other African gTLDs failed to Go Live!
ITBusiness: We spoke with the Pioneer of the .Africa gTLD and Yes2dotAfrica Campaign Sophia Bekele, also named African Trailblazer – Made in Africa – by the “Collector’s Edition” of UK’s Premium “NewAfrican Magazine” & one of top ICT Women in Africa by Bloomberg TV, on the status of the most controversial domain .Africa. ITB Q1: What is the Status of .Africa battle S. Bekele: The status of .Africa is now at the US Court, mainly because of ICANN did not manage to oversee a proper evaluation process and generally mishandling…
Read MoreAfrica Code Week: SAP To Train More Than 150,000 Youth
SAP has said that it will train more than 150, 000 youth from 30 African countries in a bid to foster digital literacy and equip the continent’s youth through their Africa Code Week. Africa Code Week 2016 is slotted to run from October 15 to October 23rd. It will involve thousands of free coding workshops and online trainings for children between the ages of 8 to 24. The Africa Code Week kick off coincided with The World Economic Forum(WEF) on Africa that is being held in Kigali. The Minister of Youth…
Read MoreVodacom Will Discontinue M-Pesa South Africa From 30th June
Earlier in the year, Vodacom said that it was reviewing M-Pesa South Africa. The service that was launched in 2010 and re-launched four years later, was expected to have millions of users but it only garnered 76,000 active users. Shameel Joosub, CEO, said in a statement that the decision was based on the fact that the business sustainability of M-Pesa is predicted on achieving a critical mass of users. Their revised projections and the high level of financial inclusion in South Africa meant that there was little prospects of…
Read More#ELLE101: #WomenInBusiness Twitter Chat with Sophia Bekele
On 6th May 2016, Elle Afrique a blogzine for the #PowerfulAfricanGoddess, hosted an incisive Twitter Chat with Sophia Bekele, Business Executive and Philanthropist. The #WomenInBusiness chat proved to be very enlightening for Women. As a seasoned entrepreneur Miss Bekele had a few nuggets of wisdom to share on women in business and what some of her experiences have been thus far. She touched on the importance of networking in business. “Networking is the subtle building of human capital through connections. Traditionally Business has been built and expanded via networks, tech has…
Read MoreA Greener South Africa Thanks To UberGreen
A new initiative by Uber seeks to make the South African environment cleaner by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In South Africa, 13% of carbon dioxide emissions are on account of the transport industry. Uber through a partnership with BMW and Nissan is seeking to bring that percentage down with UberGreen. UberGreen is a pilot project where Uber users will be able to request Electric vehicles, the BMW or the Nissan LEAF. These vehicles will be operated by drivers at Uberx prices giving Uber users the satisfaction that they are helping…
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