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 […]
Mobile West Africa 2014: wrap-up of Nigeria's largest tech conference
Nigeria was an obvious stop on our world tour of innovation in emerging markets. The country with the biggest population in Africa (and growing by 10m new people every year) has recently been promoted to its largest economy as well, beyond South Africa. It’s also regularly mentionned as the cultural capital of the continent, with […]
Lebanon startups: $400m for the tech scene
[et_pb_section admin_label= »section »][et_pb_row admin_label= »row »][et_pb_column type= »4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label= »Text »] Lebanon startups are amazing when you know the country is a tiny piece of land lost in a quite noisy neighborhood, with Israel and Syria, to name a few, regularly hitting the headlines for war-related topics. Lebanon has an older history of being a pivot between the West and the […]
Hong Kong tech hub: where finance & manufacture turn into startups
Hong Kong is better known for its financial expertise and culture of manufacturing than its startups. However, a generation of bored bankers and veterans of the factories are becoming the first generation of tech entrepreneurs in « Asia’s New York ». What is the position of Hong Kong as an innovation ecosystem? What are the links with […]
Iran startup scene: turning top engineers into businessmen
Iran may not be the first destination you would think of when it comes to startups. Its track record is here: top engineers filling American Ivy League Universities, a series of key founders who made possible eBay, Dropbox, Youtube or Zoosk, and, more recently, a political improvement which make diasporans think of going back to […]
