Category: Technology

3 reasons WeChat, Chinas biggest app, hasn’t taken over globally

Fast Company reports: There are a lot of market-specific reasons if you do a deep dive. But broadly…there are three big mistakes Tencent made with WeChat in its overseas expansion, and—not coincidentally—they’re mistakes that Chinese companies make a lot when they launch internationally. Late to expand internationally #China-first approach Poor localization Read more on Fast…
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3 ways tech can help the UN achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Travel in New York City is a mess this week. At least for regular folks anyway. But it’s for a good reason. The United Nations head of states, delegates, and Pope Francis will be in town for the UN General Assembly and security is pretty high. Along with the regular United Nations-related activity, there is…
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Connecting Africa through satellite technology

IDG Connect reports: These companies seem to be walking away from the traditional provision of information, where a live internet connection is needed. This is an area that Facebook’s Internet.org and Google’s Google Loon are still currently pursuing. Facebook has reportedly been talking to Avanti, a satellite company which owns two broadband satellites across Africa.…
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Nigerian internet usage skyrockets. Government begins smart cities initiative

Ventures Africa reports Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications Technology has initiated a Smart States initiative aimed at reducing Right of Way (RoW) fees and standardizing state levies and taxes on information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. By eliminating arbitrary charges and eradicating multiple taxations across the country, the initiative is expected to spur infrastructural development across…
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Nigeria, Egypt top list for intenet penetration in Africa

Top 10 African countries with highest intenet penetration (2012) Nigeria Egypt South Africa Morocco Kenya Sudan Tanzania Algeria Uganda Tunisia Source: African Development Bank  

Africa Trends Roundup: Internet-Anywhere, Smart cities, & Jobs creation

Getting insights from the noisy coverage of Africa can be very hard. We’ve sifted through all the news and views and identified these recent stories which more accurately indicate what Africa’s cultural, and business ecosystems might look like in the near future. Read on and continue to stay one step ahead. Made In Kenya, Assembled…
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Kenya’s Billion-Dollar Dash to Become the Tech Hub of Africa

Bloomberg reports: Nairobi, Kenya has become the tech hub of Africa, a niche that could be worth more than one billion dollars to the country in the next three years despite its 40% unemployment rate. Kenya is throwing all their eggs in the tech basket as they build a multi-billion dollar infrastructure in the form…
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Using Twitter for Nigeria election reform

At the center of grass roots efforts to keep Nigeria’s notorious election process clean is a small, indistinguishable man armed with a cell phone…Amara, wearing a t-shirt with the phrase “Light Up Nigeria” and with his mobile phone always close by, is perhaps Nigeria’s best-known Twitter activist….But as Amara tours polling stations across Lagos, he…
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Western Union partners with M-Pesa for international mobile money transfers

Western Union has announced a partnership with M-PESA, the popular Kenyan mobile cash-transfer service. This deal opens up Western Union’s huge money transfer network to the Safaricon-owned “mobile wallet” service. The parnership will allow customers in US, UK and other countries to transfer money to a Safaricom/M-Pesa user’s account and the receiver will receive an SMS…
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IT giant Infosys seeks African market expansion

Indian IT company Infosys Technologies is continuing its entrance into the African continent. It said in a statement Friday morning that it believes Africa is a market for long-term IT services and hopes it will be able to implement an investment strategy. In an interview with the Times of India, Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan said…
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