Category: Beneath the Surface
Here Are The Top Skills That Will Be In-Demand This Year, According To LinkedIn
We recently touched on the top programming skills/languages that will get you behind a desk in Zimbabwe in 2019. Whilst this last was great for people looking to add new skills to their existing skillset or picking a career path, we didn’t touch on those who are looking further than being employed locally. Maybe you’re […]
Zim Government’s Stance On Internet Shutdowns Might Mean That Smart Cities Never Materialise
On January 30, 2019 Geroge Charamba -The President’s Spokesperson- said: Let’s not over dramatise. Investors don’t need the internet when they come to Zimbabwe. They just need peace. On the same day in an interview published by the Newsday, Energy Mutodi -Deputy Minister of Information- said: The Internet shutdown was not illegal as such. The […]
Have A Hard Time Putting Your Phone Down? This App Might Just Be The Answer
Just from general discussions, I get the idea that most people have a love-hate relationship with their smartphones. They love the abundance of things they can get to do nowadays because of these pocket rockets. Unfortunately -on the flip side of things- most of us seem to hate the fact that simply putting our phones […]
How A Poor Name Can Lower The Value Of Your Brand
When you’re coming up with your business name, you may run into people who tell you not to sweat over your business name. They say that there is no tangible value to a business name – that names are just frills that aren’t worth investing time and resources into. However, studies show that simple, catchy […]
What’s The Secret Behind Chinese Phones And Their Irresistible Value For Money?
Over the past few years, we have had a lot of Chinese brands pull-up their socks and start making amazing phones at a budget. Ok, maybe amazing is a bit of an over-statement but surely for the money you’re spending on these devices (think OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, Vivo & Realme just to name a few) […]
Online Forex Trading Is Growing In Zimbabwe, We Interviewed One Of The Traders
By Munashe Mukundi We have been getting a lot of chatter regarding online forex trading locally. Some of it has been a little disturbing because it has been driven by people who are doing some kind of ponzi schemes around forex trading. Ponzi schemes are a bad idea. We interviewed a local trader (young guy) […]
Partial Privatization Of State Owned Firms Might Not Be A Bad Thing After All…
Whenever discussion turns to privatization government-owned firms such as NetOne the reaction in the public domain is not welcoming. When Government announced the reforms of parastatals back in April and announced that 12 government-owned parastatals will be getting partially privatised there was no excitement. In fact, most shared a common feeling that full privatisation will […]
How African Leaders Can Finance Development And Transformation
There is an African proverb that says the eater of a goat pays back a cow. For years African countries have focused their efforts in securing financial aid from Bretton Woods institutions and others for development and transformation. Unfortunately, this has proven to be an expensive, unsustainable model as the loans from these institutions have […]
Qualcomm Is On A Mission To Make It Impossible To Sell Stolen Or Counterfeited Phones
According to a study conducted by the EU Intellectual Property Office in 2017; 184 million counterfeit (fake) smartphones were sold globally in 2015. It’s estimated that these devices cost about 45.3B Euro ($53 billion) in losses to genuine manufacturers each year. Drumroll… This is where Qualcomm enters… The company which manufactures chipsets for industry giants […]
Why Most Women Fail In Tech
We have come a long way since gender equality was first made an issue. Doors have been opened for women to take up any career they choose, be it engineering or running an entire country. However, it is still very apparent that most women don’t actually excel in fields that are traditionally dominated by men. […]
Deep Dive: Are Online Courses Really Cheaper Than A Computer Science Degree?
So, Universities have opened at this point I can bet you people are celebrating the fact they can start living the life they saw in movies (should I tell them the truth?). However, others are probably sitting in the side-lines scoffing at the poor students making a terrible decision in their eyes. Why waste time […]
This Search Engine Plants Trees For Searches You Perform While Browsing
At Techzim we rarely get a chance to speak about global warming or deforestation, or all the potential catastrophes that might befall us, as this rarely ties in with what we actually focus on. I was glad when I stumbled upon Ecosia; a search engine that plants trees based on searches that you perform using […]
A Zimbabwean Working On A Driverless Car Raised Another $126 000 And Is About To Start Production
Around the halfway mark of 2017 we started talking about how William Sachiti –a Zimbabwean- the founder of Academy of Robotics, which was working on a driverless car to lower delivery costs was seeking funding. A few weeks later, Academy of Robotics had raised around $390K and the investment round was closed. The last mile […]
Charcoal Irons, Zvihuta, Other Zimbabwe Zhets And Bitcoin. The Zimbabwean Context To Bitcoin
Sometimes I recall dates according to what zhet (hustle) was ‘the in zhet in Zimbabwe at that time.’ You remember ngoda (diamond rush), burning and the associated BACCOSSI, charcoal irons, zvihuta (quail birds), MMM..? Is bitcoin the same as these passing fads (some of them were nothing but scams really)? My answer to that is […]
As Netflix partners Kwesé what does this mean for Netflix in Africa
Earlier this month Econet Media announced Kwesé Play, a Roku powered streaming box. It has launched in South Africa. They also announced a partnership with Netflix. In the partnership, Kwesé becomes Netflix’s official African partner and the Kwesé Play streaming box becomes the first set-top box to officially include the Netflix service. By Africa they […]
If WhatsApp is free, how does it make money?
It might sound like a question with an obvious answer. However, someone recently asked me that same question “If WhatsApp is free, how does it make money?”. To my surprise, I didn’t have a clear answer to give them and it took me a while to finally understand myself. So if you’re like me and […]
Steward Bank: A case study of old vs new thinking #BroadbandEconomy
I have just been reading the Financial Gazette interview of Dr Lance Mambondiani, the CEO of Steward Bank. I guess he is becoming one of the best known CEO’s of any financial services business isn’t he? I was skeptical about reading the interview initially because I thought this is just some spin but I did […]
Update on EcoCash pre-pay tollgate fees system
Today, we attended the launch for a partnership between EcoCash and ZINARA that introduced a new payment method for tollgate fees that uses EcoCash. At Mazoe tollgate, we saw the system in action and we can confirm that it will take you 15 seconds or less to pay for tollgate fees as they claimed at […]
Zimdancehall dominates & comedy is the most lucrative – Our findings on the Zimbabwean internet video economy
We spent a full month exploring Zimbabwe’s internet video economy and in that period, we uncovered a lot of information that has helped shape our understanding of this unique sector. We discuss those findings in this podcast.
263chat to Zimpapers – Here’s how much Zimbabwean media is using internet video
Our checks first of all shows that apart from 263chat no other internet-only publisher has taken video seriously enough to post something every week. Of the traditional media companies, only Zimpapers and Alpha media
Here are the 7 leading aggregators in the Zimbabwean internet video space
We’ve managed to uncover quite a bit of interesting information which included a list of the most prominent creators in the internet video space as well as some insights on YouTube and Facebook popularity. However, we also noticed that online video platforms and aggregators were best suited for a separate list.
Beneath the Surface – Interview with Bustop TV Co founder Lucky Aaroni
For our Beneath the Surface feature, we sat down with Lucky Aaroni. Along with Bhutisi (Admire Kuzhangaira) and Kedha (Rolland Lunga), he was the co-founder of the original P.O Box TV and now works with Bustop TV which he also co-founded.
Q & A with a Canada-based Zimbabwean comedic duo that was born on YouTube
Wershuta (pronounced as We Are Shuta) is one production team that falls into that category. the Canadian-based Zimbabwean duo of has been churning out comedic skits on YouTube that have a Zimbabwean focus for more than a year and in the process have established a following that has been growing consistently.
Baba Tencen is the most popular Zimbabwean internet video creator, and more interesting facts.
A week ago we started off on a new approach to in-depth content with a series called “Beneath the Surface” which is meant to provide us with an opportunity to plunge into a further understanding of certain topics in Zimbabwe’s (and the region’s) tech space. So far, our first feature, The Internet video Economy in Zimbabwe; […]
Here are the 7 most successful Internet video outfits in Zimbabwe
These Zimbabwean outfits are tapping into the power of internet video to build brands, grow a following and even make some money.