TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

      12 August 2022

      Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

      12 August 2022

      Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

      12 August 2022

      Telkom says MTN talks remain on track

      12 August 2022

      Analysis | Rain muddies the waters with approach to Telkom

      11 August 2022
    • World

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022

      Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

      12 August 2022

      Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

      12 August 2022

      Ether at two-month high as upgrade to blockchain passes major test

      12 August 2022

      Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

      11 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»In-depth»International Newsmakers of 2014

    International Newsmakers of 2014

    In-depth By Regardt van der Berg10 December 2014
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Intl-NewsMaker-2014-640

    As is customary at this time of the year, TechCentral is pleased to present its lists of who it considers are the biggest technology newsmakers over the past 12 months, both internationally and in South Africa.

    We kick it off, as always, with the five people the publication’s editors believe were the biggest newsmakers in the technology space in 2014 worldwide. Later this week, we’ll publish our South African technology newsmakers of the year.

    Lists like this are, of course, subjective, but they’re our attempt to highlight the people we believe deserve the title of “newsmaker of the year”.

    5-Ginni-Rometty5Ginni Rometty
    Rometty is the first woman to head Big Blue. Her role has not been an easy one given IBM’s declining revenue and the promises made to investors by her predecessor, Sam Palmisano, that the company would achieve US$20 in earnings per share in the 2015 financial year. Indeed, Rometty said last month that the company would not meet Palmisano’s stretch target. But this, say analysts, is a good thing for Rometty, who will now be able to focus on other, more important things.

    Rometty has, however, been boxing clever this year. Her strategy of investing in new technologies is likely to pay dividends. And IBM’s strategic partnership with Apple and her pledge to invest $1bn in cognitive computing systems — a big focus area for the company — are smart moves.

    44-Mark-ZuckerbergMark Zuckerberg
    The Facebook founder, who also happens to be the world’s second youngest self-made billionaire — his personal wealth is estimated to be well north of $30bn — wasn’t out of the news much in 2014. But his audacious, $22bn acquisition of WhatsApp is what got him onto TechCentral’s International Newsmakers list this year.

    The instant messaging service generates only $10m/year in revenue, and Zuckerberg says he’s not interested in monetising it until it reaches a billion users. Zuck dreams big!

    Facebook this year extended its lead as the world’s most popular and most global social network, in September recording an average of 864m daily active users.

    For Zuckerberg, connecting everyone on the planet to the Internet is also a priority. Facebook’s Internet.org initiative wants to get the two thirds of the world’s population who don’t have Internet access online for the first time. This year, Internet.org was launched in Africa, with Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, giving Airtel customers in those countries zero-rated access to a range of services, including Facebook and Wikipedia.

    33-Tim-CookTim Cook
    This has been the year the Apple CEO was able to make his mark on the most successful technology business in world today. The gap left by the late Steve Jobs was undoubtedly a difficult one to fill, but Cook made it his own this year.

    Indeed, 2014 was the year Apple introduced its first new product category since Jobs’s passing in 2011. Even though the Apple Watch will be launched only next year, it’s already generating enormous hype and interest from consumers.

    Under Cook’s watch (see what we did there?), Apple’s share price has also seen impressive growth. Indeed, it’s doubled since he took the reins. Financial analysts say the company could be the first to reach a market capitalisation of $1 trillion, from $675bn now.

    Cook also got onto our list for becoming the first openly gay leader of a Fortune 500 company when he revealed his sexual orientation in a piece penned for Businessweek.

    22-Travis-KalanickTravis Kalanick
    As Uber’s founder and CEO, Kalanick is the head of one of the most exciting start-ups in years. This year, he entered the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans at number 290, worth an estimated $3bn. Just four years after it was founded, Uber has already been valued at more than $40bn (overvalued, anyone?) and is operational in 50 countries and 250 cities.

    Uber is a service that connects drivers and passengers using a clever app that tracks the taxi as it arrives and handles all payment once the ride is complete.

    But Uber has come under fire over its aggressive corporate culture. And it’s been banned in a number of countries around the world, including Thailand and the Netherlands, for alleged noncompliance with local laws.

    It was most recently banned in Delhi in India after the alleged rape of a female passenger by an Uber driver. While Uber may be facing a number of mammoth obstacles, it continues to grow around the world, including in South Africa.

    141-Satya-NadellaSatya Nadella
    This is a new-look Microsoft. Breaking its long-standing tradition of putting its Windows operating system above everything else, Nadella is now making the company’s software and services work across a wide array of platforms, including Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. The changes have been led by Nadella, who took the reins from Steve Ballmer in February, though, to be fair, they were started on Ballmer’s watch. But the Indian-born Nadella has lit a rocket under Microsoft’s transformation in his 10 months at the helm.

    If nothing else, there’s growing interest in Microsoft again after many commentators had written it off as a dinosaur of the client-server era of computing. This has translated into its shares climbing by more than 30% since he took the hot seat.

    Not all the headlines that Nadella generated this year were positive, though. In October, he was speaking at a women’s technical conference on the topic of women in computing when he said controversially: “It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along.” There was an international backlash, which forced him into issuing an apology.  — © 2014 NewsCentral Media

    Apple Facebook Ginni Rometty IBM Mark Zuckerberg Microsoft Satya Nadella Tim Cook Travis Kalanick Uber
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleStarSat denied leave to appeal
    Next Article SABC chair loses Transnet board seat

    Related Posts

    Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

    12 August 2022

    Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

    11 August 2022

    African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

    11 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.