TCS - The TechCentral Show

Andy Higgins, founder of e-commerce solutions company Bob Group, knows more about e-commerce in South Africa than most people.

Higgins founded Bidorbuy (now Bob Shop) at the height of the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, and over the past 25 years has actively participated in the industry as it has mushroomed from those nascent beginnings.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), Higgins has a look back at the growth of the industry, and what’s likely to propel its future expansion.

In the show, Higgins unpacks:

• How Bob Group has done since it was created nearly two years ago through the merger of Bidorbuy and uAfrica, and what the future holds for the business;

• What is driving the rapid growth in South Africa’s e-commerce industry – did Covid lockdowns give it the spark for its current rapid expansion, or is there more at play?;

• The rise of on-demand deliveries in South Africa and what it means for online retailers;

• The rise of Chinese competitors – how much of a threat are Shein and Temu really, and is the South African Revenue Service right to crack down?;

• The Competition Commission’s intervention in the market and whether it is warranted;

• Whether Amazon’s South African launch was a flop; and

• What trends to look out for as the market develops further in the coming years.

Don’t miss a fascinating discussion!

A new smart payment ring has been launched in South Africa – and it’s built by South Africans for South Africans.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod chats to VezoPay founders Jake Pinkus and Lawrence Baker about the launch of the ring – it’s available in three variants at launch – and what was behind the idea.

In the interview, they not only explain why they decided to build a payment ring, but also why they’re entering what could soon become a highly competitive market globally, with both Samsung Electronics and Apple expected to launch their own smart rings later this year.

Pinkus and Lawrence unpack:

• How long they’ve been working on the payment ring, and where the idea came from;

• How much research and development was involved, and who’s backing the innovation;

• How the technology works, and what exactly is inside the ring;

• The various options available at launch;

• How it works without having to be charged;

• How the security features work (without giving the game away);

• How VezoPay is working with South African banks;

• Whether the ring can be used for ticketing (concerts, Gautrain, etc);

• How much it costs;

• The potential competition from Samsung and Apple; and

• VezoPay’s plans to expand beyond South Africa’s borders.

Don’t miss the interview!

Kartik Mistry, recently appointed head of Standard Bank Connect, believes there is still strong growth ahead for South Africa’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market.

Standard Bank, which recently rebranded its MVNO from Standard Bank Mobile to Standard Bank Connect and shifted its network partner from Cell C to MTN South Africa, has launched a new value proposition in cellular communications for its customers.

TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod is joined by Mistry on the TechCentral Show, where he explains the bank’s decision to partner with MTN and why it decided to engage directly with a mobile network operator rather than working through an “enablement” partner as it had done previously.

Kartik, who has experience in both telecommunications – he has previously served as chief operating officer at Rain – and in banking, talks about the state of the MVNO market in South Africa, where Standard Bank Connect is positioning itself strategically, and why the market might be primed for consolidation.

Don’t miss the discussion!

The big developer conferences by Microsoft, Google and Apple this year all focused on artificial intelligence, with each setting out a unique strategy to win in the AI race.

But what did Microsoft’s Build, Google’s I/O and Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference tell us about each company’s strategy, and which company is leading in the race to commercialise generative AI?

Dean Furman, a South African AI expert and keynote speaker, joins TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to unpack the companies’ keynote presentations and what they tell us not only about their strategies but also where the technology is headed in the coming years.

Furman, who also provides training on AI to corporate South Africa, chats about what the latest developments mean for businesses and consumers, and dives into what the technology means for productivity.

MultiChoice Group has been involved in two major enforcement actions against piracy kingpins in as many weeks.

Frikkie Jonker, of MultiChoice subsidiary Irdeto, is the man leading the charge against these pirate operations, and he tells the TechCentral Show (TCS) that, despite recent arrests, the broadcaster’s war on streaming piracy is just getting started. More arrests and other enforcement actions are on the cards.

On 5 June, MultiChoice revealed it had succeeding in nailing the streaming piracy platform Waka TV in an operation that involved Western Cape police investigators. It described the dismantling of Waka TV as “a significant victory in the fight against internet streaming piracy”.

The broadcaster said it was involved in a “meticulously planned raid” on 31 May, which led to the arrest of a “key suspect involved in one of the most extensive pirate operations in Africa”.

A day later, on 6 June, the broadcaster announced that through Irdeto – and working with law enforcement agencies – it had acted against another pirate streaming operation, this one in Gauteng, where a suspect was arrested for the “illegal sale of internet streaming pirate devices that allowed individuals to access MultiChoice content”.

Jonker, who is antipiracy director in broadcasting and cybersecurity at Irdeto, takes TechCentral’s audience into some detail about the two law enforcement operations and what transpired. And he explains why MultiChoice is stepping up its battle against content thieves and pirate streaming operations in South Africa and the rest of the African continent.

In the interview, Jonker unpacks:

• How serious content piracy has become on the continent;

• Why it’s often associated with organised criminal syndicates, and why consumers are putting themselves at risk by signing up to pirate streaming platforms as well as encouraging further criminal activity;

• Why MultiChoice is now warning that, in addition to targeting the pirate platform operators, it may go after consumers who sign up to these platforms, too; and

• How the broadcaster is working with law enforcement authorities.

Don’t miss a fascinating conversation.

MTN South Africa last week announced that PayShap, South Africa’s rapid payments platform, is being integrated into its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform.

Bradwin Roper, chief financial services officer at MTN South Africa, is the guest in the latest episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS). He unpacks the PayShap development and what it means, and explores MTN’s fintech strategy and the future of mobile money in South Africa.

In this episode of TCS, Roper chats about:

* The significance of MTN becoming the first non-banking platform to offer access to PayShap;

* Why and how it’s working with Investec and technical service provider Electrum to deploy the solution;

* What MTN customers will be able to do with PayShap;

* The growth of mobile money in South Africa, and the work that MTN is doing to grow the ecosystem; and

* Lessons South Africa can draw from other emerging markets, notably India and Brazil, in mobile money and rapid payments.

Don’t miss the interview!

In this special episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS) – presented by MTN Business – Duncan McLeod chats to two South African biohackers, Daniel de Kock and Jarryd Bekker, about why they have voluntarily installed microchips in their bodies.

Respectively the chief technology officer and CEO of Riot Network – the wireless broadband specialist that is building low-cost networks in underserviced areas, including Olievenhoutbosch in Gauteng – they tell TechCentral about why they chose to implant the chips and what they’re used for.

The pair, who both profess a desire to receive brain implants from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, explain how they started augmenting their biological bodies with electronics, what’s involved, the information they’re able to glean from the chips, and where the fusion of human biology and electronics is headed over the coming decade.

In the interview, Bekker and De Kock unpack how electronic circuitry in the human body can help detect and manage serious health issues, and the impact this could have on fighting disease and prolonging people’s lives.

The two discuss a range of issues related to biohacking, including:

• What’s involved when it’s time to upgrade the chips;

• How one goes about having them installed;

• The growing online biohacker community;

• Integration with artificial intelligence; and

• Much more.

Don’t miss this offbeat but fascinating discussion!

Paratus Group is rapidly emerging as a major player in the telecommunications industry in Southern Africa. But who’s behind Paratus, and what’s its history?

From landing Google’s Equiano subsea cable in Swakopmund and building a new fibre route between South Africa and Namibia – providing a new data corridor between Gauteng and the world – to working with Meta Platforms to wire up Zambia and building expansive satellite ground stations, the Namibian-born group has its eyes firmly set on becoming a significant telecoms player in the region.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod chats to Paratus Group chief commercial officer Martin Cox about the company’s origins (although founded in Namibia, it cut its teeth in Angola), its current footprint and its future growth plans.

Among other topics, Cox discusses:

• The impact of the recent subsea cable breaks in West Africa and the role of diverse routes in reducing the impact;

• Paratus’s new fibre route from Swakopmund to Johannesburg, which runs through Botswana – its significance and what was involved in its construction;

• The group’s footprint in South Africa, including its new satellite ground station in Irene, near Pretoria; and

• Paratus’s culture, and why its management team is happiest in “the trenches”; and

• Whether a listing for Paratus Group could be on the cards at some point (its Namibian operation is already listed in Windhoek).

Don’t miss the discussion!

A dusty township in Gauteng is the site of a South African-developed mesh network that could change everything. Read the full story at https://techcentral.co.za/internet-revolution-in-olievenhoutbosch/241698/

South African firm Hydrox Holdings has developed a new way of extracting hydrogen for use in cars and other applications that it believes will help usher in a new era of plentiful clean energy for the world.

The company, based in Pretoria, has won a number of awards and other accolades for its patented intellectual property, which involves extracting hydrogen from water using a “membrane-less” electrolyser technology that it has patented globally.

Corrie de Jager, the CEO and founder of Hydrox Holdings, joins the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about the progress the company has made in recent years in developing the technology – and why he is now looking for investors to help commercialise it.

De Jager, who has been working on the technology for more than two decades, claims the technology could help move the world to non-polluting and mass-scale hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars more quickly by dramatically reducing the cost of extracting hydrogen from water.

In this episode of TCS, he unpacks:

• Where the idea to build a membrane-less electrolyser came from;

• The proofs of concept the company has launched;

• The hurdles that Hydrox’s team has had to overcome while developing the technology;

• The cost and production advantages of membrane-less electrolysers;

• Why hydrogen could be the next big thing in clean energy production;

• What’s stopping the widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars; and

• Where Hydrox plans to take the technology and how it intends to commercialise it.

Don’t miss a fascinating interview about a potentially ground-breaking South African innovation.