The greatest barrier to extending Internet use in South Africa, and indeed in most African countries, is the cost of data. In South Africa, 1GB of data on mobile networks – the only means of accessing the Internet for most – is R149 (prepaid). This means that for millions of people
Browsing: Mark Zuckerberg
Unsurprisingly, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison top the list of the richest people in technology, but did you know that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is in third place after a recent surge in the value of the online retailer’s
Facebook will soon introduce Internet.org, its free Internet service for users in emerging markets, in South Africa in partnership with mobile operator Cell C. The social network has already launched the offering in a range
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
According to TechRepublic, Google produced two of the five worst technology products of 2009 – Android 1.0 and Google Wave. The fact that Google remains dominant suggests that, while not infallible, it’s rich enough to take risks and weather occasional failures. If you are as rich as Google, it’s not extravagant to allow
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
Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a blog post on Thursday that he had held a telephone conversation this week with US president Barack Obama in which the Facebook CEO expressed his “frustration over the damage” the US government is “creating for all our future”. Zuckerberg, 29, has become increasingly vocal about the fallout
Silicon Valley is as much about creating legends as it is about changing reality. Where else could a guy get turned down for a job and then, five years later, sell his company to the people that turned him down for US$19bn? I’m talking, of course, about
Nineteen billion dollars. Two hundred and ten billion rand. Nearly R500/user. That’s how much Facebook has agreed to pony up for WhatsApp, the fast-growing but still very much loss-making cross-platform mobile instant messaging platform. It’s a daring – perhaps insane – bet by Facebook’s
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. It’s the phrase that’s launched a thousand editorials, most of them decrying the manifest evils of the insatiable 1%. But a large part of this increased inequality is driven not by greed or manipulation, but by technology