Author: Toby Shapshak

Max Cuvellier’s not-insubstantial day job is head of mobile for development of the GSMA. But that’s not what he’s talking to Stuff Studio’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about. His also not-insubstantial side-jig is a data newsletter called Africa: The Big Deal, which he runs with his good friend Maxime Bayen. This “one graph, one paragraph” weekly newsletter has tracked how fintech has exploded on the continent; while start-ups in Africa have raised $1.8 billion in Q1 of 2022 or 2.5 times the amount raised the year before. Also listen on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, and Spotify.

One of Twitter’s biggest critics, and most controversial tweeters, is now its largest shareholder. Elon Musk’s 9.2% stake is worth $2.9 billion today, pushing the social platform’s shares to rise by 30%. After rumours — based on his tweets — that Musk was perhaps going to start his own social media platform, he opted instead to buy into Twitter. Last month he tweeted: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.” He asked his 80-million Twitter followers: “Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” About 70% of the two-million people who answered voted “no”. The next day, he…

There is a prima facie case of “abuse of dominance” against WhatsApp and its parent, Meta Platforms, the Competition Commission has found. It has referred them to the Competition Tribunal “for prosecution” and has proposed a hefty fine of “10% of [the] collective turnover” of Meta (and its Facebook and WhatsApp subsidiaries) in SA. Since Facebook (as it was then known) was referred to the competition watchdog in November 2020, the tribunal has twice interdicted it from “offboarding” an SA messaging service run by startup GovChat, called #LetsTalk. The commission found that the terms and conditions governing access to the…

How often do you just click “Accept all cookies” when visiting a website? It always seems easier to click that one, prominent button than fight your way through several screens and clicks to reject cookies or to only accept the bare minimum. This difficulty is a coordinated attempt by websites to make it harder to stop them from tracking you digitally. Who are the worst offenders? Would you believe it’s Google and Facebook – which the French privacy watchdog last year fined €150 million and €60 million, respectively. They have three months, from January this year, to rectify the settings.…

How do you pump R4-billion back into SA’s economy? Well, if everyone stopped advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, that money could flow directly into the SA economy instead of into the bank accounts of foreign companies. It’s a radical suggestion, and one that is unlikely to actually come about. However, it does give a sense of the cost to the SA economy for a service that is much less reliable than the advertising industry would have you believe. For many, these tech giants are the face of the democratisation of information. Facebook connects you, for free, with the…

How do you pump R4-billion back into SA’s economy? Well, if everyone stopped advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, that money could flow directly into the SA economy instead of into the bank accounts of foreign companies. It’s a radical suggestion, and one that is unlikely to actually come about. However, it does give a sense of the cost to the SA economy for a service that is much less reliable than the advertising industry would have you believe. For many, these tech giants are the face of the democratisation of information. Facebook connects you, for free, with the…

If Google is selling my personal preferences based on my search history to would-be advertisers, they are getting it completely wrong. Here’s why. Google thinks I want to buy a new iPhone (which I already own), a new MacBook Pro (check), needs insurance (which I already have), and am constantly buying consumer electronics (I’m not, I am just searching for prices when reviewing products for Stuff). Occasionally, it also seems, I really want to buy ugly shoes. Or the makers of this particular brand of shoes – which are so ugly not even Tito Mboweni would be seen in public…

When I booked my first flight since lockdown, I didn’t even check the prices of other airlines. Price used to be the most important criteria for booking a flight until I encountered the professionalism and reliability of FlySafair. Not only are they reliable, but they have thought through the user experience in a way that other airlines simply haven’t. Before Covid, when I arrived at the airport, I got an SMS telling me which gate to go to. The emailed boarding pass was cleverly designed to be viewed on a mobile phone – “doh!” as Homer Simpson likes to say…

Nissan has released a range of electrified versions of their popular cars – Juke, Qashqai, X-Trail, and Townstar van – as well as a new flagship electric vehicle, the Ariya. This is part of the Japanese car giant’s bold vision for the EV era, for which it is planning to launch 23 electric models by 2030. “We need to write and publish the next chapter,” said Francois Bailly, Nissan’s senior vice-president for planning in the AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe (plus Russia), and Oceania) region. He was speaking in Madrid at the launch of the six new vehicles. EVs…

Stuff’s publisher and editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak sat down with the director of Planetworld, Maurice Van Heerden, to chat about how he came to bring Sonos products (among others) to SA. Planetworld is an importer and distributor of audio products from a number of high-end manufacturers for a range of applications including car audio, home theatre setups and smart home audio. Van Heerden takes Shapshak through the story of bringing Sonos products to SA and how Sonos were among the first to effectively implement smart functions in high-end audio solutions, first seen in the Sonos One. Also available on Apple Podcasts…