What went on at RHoK Harare – Part 1 of 3
Posted inStartups

What went on at RHoK Harare – Part 1 of 3

We've participated in a few hackathons the last couple of years. We've even been a winner in one of them. This year when we decided to host our own hackathon, we chose to do things a little different.
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Posted inBroadband

Dandemutande chairman comments on uMAX losses & shareholder confidence

Earlier today we posted an article titled "uMAX incurs $4.9 million loss. Shareholders express low confidence". We noted in the article, as the title says, that the contents of the annual report indicate low confidence in the retail and consumer internet business becoming profitable in the short term.
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Posted inBroadband

iWayAfrica in $55k loss for year ending December 2012

The annual report released this past weekend by Masawara also had details of the financial performance of one other internet provider which Masawara has shareholding in; iWayAfrica Zimbabwe. The iWay business also made losses in the year ending 31 December 2012 albeit much lower than uMAX.
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Posted inConnectivity Mobile Money Startups

More of the Afrocoin money transfer solution: the website screenshot

Last month, we wrote about a money transfer service set to launch soon called Afrocoin. With scanty information gleaned from their Crunchbase profile and website holding page, we were not sure of the details of the product it is. We are still not sure about many things, but an image sent to our tips email this afternoon gives more insight into at least their web presence.
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Posted inConnectivity

uMAX incurs $4.9 million loss. Shareholders express low confidence

The 2012 annual report sent out to Masawara shareholders over the weekend revealed that Dandemutande, an internet provider they have shareholding in, incurred losses amounting to US $4.9 million during the year ended 31 December 2012. Masawara’s share of the loss was US $3.4 million. The losses are attributed mainly to the retail and consumer internet division, which is called uMAX.
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Posted inConnectivity

New Steward Bank banks on Econet relationship for product innovation

Today we attended a (now former) TN Bank event where the company launched its new name Steward Bank. The rebranding comes a few months after the bank was acquired by Econet Wireless from its former owner Tawanda Nyambirai. It was made clear at the event by the bank CEO, Kwanele Ngwenya, that the bank's services will be tightly integrated to its telecommunications parent Econet Wireless.
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Satellite TV: South Africa finally encrypts SABC channels

Local TV sucks. Well, ok, that's too general. But those satellite dishes stuck to walls , housetops and trees even in the lowest income neighbourhoods suggest people are hungry for other content. Maybe it's in addition to what's served by the local TV overlords.
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Posted inConnectivity Social Media

Local bargains ad service, Bargain Buddy, grows rapidly on Facebook

In less than a month, a Facebook page dedicated to bargains in Zimbabwe has attracted more than 9,000 new followers and more than 3,000 people 'talking about it' at a time on the social network. The rapid growth, according to the owner of the page Sean Steyn, is indication that people are finding it useful and that there's a healthy market for an online bargains service locally,
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Posted inConnectivity

Fingaz website attacked by hackers again

A tweet by an account called zimCyberHackers announced a few days ago the hacking of the website belonging to local weekly newspaper, The Financial Gazette. We didn't see the actual evidence of the hacking but we notice the website has since been taken down "for maintenance", the likely result of such incidents.
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Posted inConnectivity

Guide to online shopping in Zimbabwe: making payments

Just like in a supermarket, after which many online shopping carts are modelled, you will have to pay for the product you want to buy before it is shipped to you. The accepted payment methods vary from seller to seller. The ways to effect payment range from simple and common like the use of a debit card or Western Union to complex electronic money methods like webmoney and bitcoin.
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Posted inBroadband

Africom explains what the new Guroo VoIP service is

Yesterday, we wrote about Africom's new VoIP service called Guroo (prounced guru). As usual, a company usually have their own story about what a product is and how it will impact the market. One thing we note in the release sent to us this morning is that Africom is presenting itself as a Guroo reseller as opposed to the owners of the company and brand.
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Posted inBroadband

ZOL announces uncapped internet. Offers one of Zim’s lowest priced broadband

As internet prices continue to fall in Zimbabwe, Liquid Telecom subsidiary ISP, ZOL, announced yesterday the introduction of unlimited internet to replace its capped packages. In a message to customers ZOL said that effective immediately all broadband packages will no longer incur additional usage charges as internet caps are "a very archaic method and it is time to move on."
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Posted inConnectivity

MyTV Africa: DSTV’s competition

After my rant in the previous article I got an email in my inbox suggesting I try MyTV and see how it compares with DSTV which it aims to compete with. MyTV is a smart card pay satellite service just like DSTV.
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Posted inBroadband

Guroo is Africom’s new VoIP service. Our initial thoughts

You may have noticed Guroo over the past several days. Or Guro-o if we go by the new service's domain name and logo. It's a product by Africom and in case you are wondering how that's pronounced, it's 'guru' as in expert. It's a new VoIP service the company has launched. Africa's first, they are saying.
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