The profits generated by some technology firms are awe-inspiring, serving as beacons for those at less fortunate enterprises. Devices have accounted for a large part of that success, particularly smartphones. But challengers trying to follow this route to profits are likely to be disappointed
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Greed is still good. Wall Street has just witnessed its largest ever stock market launch as Chinese Internet giant Alibaba raised some US$25bn and watched its share price rise by 35% on its first day’s trading. It says
How the Internet is governed is no longer a matter seen fit to be left to mere technical committees. With the extent of online surveillance, so dramatically revealed by the Snowden files, increased content filtering and blocking, and the issue of net neutrality, which would allow
Ask 10 people what they think about Africa’s rising cities and you get 10 different opinions. The only thing they will agree on is that traffic is awful. In truth, 52 cities with more than a million inhabitants are becoming a magnet for innovation, with echoes of the industrial revolution. Take a look at sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest number
President Jacob Zuma’s daughter, Thuthukile, may have made history as South Africa’s youngest head of a minister’s office. From a lowly public liaison officer to the powerful position of chief of staff within two months at the age of 25, she now earns almost a million rand a year. Her dramatic rise to the position, which
If there was any doubt about South Africans’ interest in the results of last week’s election, the traffic numbers from News24 – more than 102 000 concurrent users and 8,5TB of data served in two days – should put that to rest. According to the statistics from website analytics firm Effective Measure, News24, which is ultimately owned
Vodacom is taking direct aim at its biggest rival, MTN, announcing a new prepaid tariff plan, Anytime Per Second, on Tuesday that competes head-on with MTN’s One Rate plan. MTN recently cut the price of its One Rate calling plan from R1,75/minute
Social media and the Internet played a key role in Kenya’s largely peaceful elections this month by affording Kenyans the chance to quiz candidates and allowing them to share messages of peace and tolerance with one another. Technology was also employed to
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has hinted that on-network calling plans such as the one recently launched by Vodacom could be anticompetitive and may require regulatory intervention. Big operators often take advantage of their
Vodacom is stepping up its war with Cell C, launching a new radio advertisement that takes aggressive aim at the smaller operator’s new Supacharge prepaid airtime plans. At the same time, Cell C is taking aim at Vodacom in a new print media campaign that questions its bigger rival’s tariff plans