We'll be at Echelon Singapore, let's meet to discuss emerging markets startups!
It’s the calm before the storm, and some time to check my social networks, LinkedIn profile and namecards, but YES, we are ready at Innovation is Everywhere for a compact week in Singapore, South-East Asia’s undisputed (yet) startup hub. Echelon Singapore 2014, the biggest events for startups in South-East Asia First with Echelon Singapore, the region’s […]
Makers in the space! How Israel's Space IL is hacking its way to the Moon
Only three nations made it to land something or someone on the Moon (US, USSR, China), but there could be a 4th country there soon, as a team of Israelis is getting nearer and nearer the objective. Yariv Bash, founder of Space IL, delivered a very impressive talk during the Maker Faire Shenzhen on how […]
Not your everyday hackathon: how we made a boat in one day with Protei in Hong Kong
To be honest, when I knew about this hackathon, I had mixed feelings. I have attended many hackathons in France and in Singapore this year, and as a non-developer, I just felt my contributions were minimal, it’s hard to gather a team and speak the same language with designers and tech people, and, well, as […]
Shenzhen startup scene: welcome to the world capital of makers
If you were waiting for a sign that China has changed and is an amazing huge thing adapting to the new industrial revolution, there you go. Take what was a fishing village 30 years ago, with 200-300 000 inhabitants. Create a special economic zone to attract migrants from all over the country. Make it […]
Makers in the City – How 11 makerspaces around the world grow communities and hack urban issues
Cities are the future of mankind, with 60% of the world population expected to live there by 2030. It doesn’t come without new challenges, such as the integration of new migrants, the management of more waste and water consumption, and a global competition between world top cities to attract innovative companies and entrepreneurs to create […]
Reaching illiterate people in the emerging countries: the power of voice based mobile apps
While attending Mobile West Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, we again were confronted with a key trend of technology in the emerging markets: voice-based apps. In Africa, for instance 38% adults are still illiterate, as well as 25% in Asia (not forgetting the incredibly huge 14% of illiterate people among adults in the US). Internet technologies […]
E-commerce in Nigeria: how Rocket Internet's Jumia, Kaymu and Jovago are taking over Africa's biggest market
If Nigeria is “Africa’s India”, it’s for the sheer size of the market – 170m people now, 440m by 2050 – and because with a GDP growing between 4.5 and 9% each year over the past decade, there is now a small but growing part of the population able to buy online, to travel, and […]
Mobile technology and politics in developing countries: case studies from Nigeria, India and South Africa
There’s no political “perfect state”, but in Africa especially, governance is a recurring issue. Corrupt or broken government make it hard for the population to get out of the poverty cycle, create value through entrepreneurship, or just take part in the political life of the country. There may still be solutions with the combination of […]
In Nigeria, forget Facebook, 2go and Eskimi are the two social mobile networks that matter
We all saw these world maps of social media, where each country has the color of its main platform: Facebook in all western countries and much more, Qzone in China, and a few local resistants such as VKontakte in Russia. For the main tech giants, such as Google, Facebook or Amazon, the race is fierce to […]
Solo Phone: the Nigerian smartphone that gets rid of the data issue
Data consumption for mobile internet access is everywhere a hot topic, but even more in emerging markets where the infrastructure is either in bad shape or almost inexistant. Rather than waiting for Facebook or Google to deploy a high-speed internet with the help of solar drones or balloons respectively, local manufacturers try to find other […]
