The current debate over the right to be forgotten, spurred by a European Union ruling that allows people to stop certain Web pages from appearing in search results, is proof – if further proof was required – of the distinct form of public life that is being created by the Internet. Our digital identities are shaped by how
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In the mid-1990s, there were fewer telephone connections in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa than there were in Manhattan. What a difference two decades has made: by the end of this year, there will be more than 635m active telephone subscriptions on the sub-continent. That number is twice the population of
Nearly 7m South Africans tap into Facebook on a daily basis, new research by Ipsos shows. Of the 6,7m daily active users in South Africa, 6,2m use the social network website from their mobile phones. This research, which was commissioned by Facebook, shows there are 1mm monthly active users in South Africa
MTN plans to spend US$3bn (about R31bn) on its network in Nigeria over the next three years to improve quality of service. The company has previously had quality problems with its network in the West African country. According to website BDlive, the Nigerian Communications Commission banned MTN and two other mobile operators
Nigeria plans to double investment in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector from US$25bn to $50bn in the next few years, according to the West African nation’s communication technology minister, Omobola Johnson. Johnson said that her ministry and the Nigerian Communications Commission
I have such a complicated relationship with Google and Facebook that I sometimes find it hard to write about them. I don’t mean complicated in the sense of conflict of interest, although it is true that one of the organisations I do work for now receives funding from Google, so there is that, but what I am really talking about is
On the streets of Lagos and across God-fearing southern Nigeria, it’s not uncommon to see people with a leather-bound Bible in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. But the Good Book’s days could be numbered – in printed form at least – if 25-year-old Kayode Sowole’s idea takes off. The computer science student
The story of Oculus VR is the kind of garage-to-greatness story that geeks usually love. A passionate, self-taught tinkerer barely out of his teens revives a dead technology and two years later, Facebook buys his company for US$2bn. So, why are many of the company’s earliest backers so angry? Oculus VR makes virtual reality headsets
Yookos, a newish social networking site aimed at people across Africa, has signed up 10m users in the three years since its commercial launch and appears set for further strong growth. The network, which began in Nigeria as a Christian-focused site, is now headquartered in Johannesburg and is targeting a broader audience interested in what its founders
The mobile operators are fighting the wrong war, and they’re squaring up to the wrong enemy. They should be fundamentally revising their business models to prepare for Google, Facebook and Microsoft, which are taking aim directly at their voice business. Let us take a step back. For well over a decade, South