Browsing: Brett Loubser

Messaging app WeChat is heavily focused on the take-up of its wallet technology in South Africa this year, says the app’s head of Africa, Brett Loubser. WeChat, which is owned by Chinese Internet giant Tencent, rivals competitors such

A new courier service is launching in Cape Town and may spread to other cities. Picup, which is being launched on Thursday, aims to disrupt traditional courier services by offering near instant delivery of documents and small parcels. The service

Start-up M4Jam, which launched commercial services this week, is hoping to make a dent in South Africa’s unemployment crisis. The company — its name is short for “money for jam” offers people with smartphones jobs that take a short period to complete. Started by 44-year-old entrepreneur Andre Hugo, the idea is to provide

South Africa, where 80% of the adult population owns a cellphone but the median income is a mere R3 000/month, poses specific challenges to tech companies trying to make inroads into the cellphone market. For many, the solution has come in the form of apps that allow

There’s an online land grab of the sort not seen since the dot-com bubble taking place in the global instant messaging (IM) market. WhatsApp Messenger, WeChat (partly owned by South Africa’s Naspers), Hangouts, Skype and BlackBerry Messenger, along with several smaller

China’s Tencent, in which JSE-listed Internet and media group Naspers holds a 35% stake, appears to have designs on the African market and is preparing to ramp up focus on South Africa and Africa more broadly with its WeChat platform. Tencent, well known in China for its QQ