From this my piece Master The Victory of Time.
MTN Unveils WhatsApp Competitor That Works Even Without Data
MTN gets into the game and could be in for something bigger than powering calls and data: instant messaging. Yes, the African mobile giant plans to introduce instant messaging [IM], capturing the best of WhatsApp and WeChat in all the countries where it does business, beginning on trials in West Africa. This is a very fascinating vision for the company. It has recognized that the future of selling data and voice is not necessarily bright with satellite competitors and ICT utilities like Google and Facebook surrounding Africa. (I do think this IM may work only for MTN customers since the company is only launching in countries it currently operates.)
MTN Group has announced it will launch an instant messaging (IM) service akin to China’s WeChat and Facebook’s WhatsApp as it seeks to expand revenue from digital services and mobile money.
With the IM platform, which will form part of the group’s mobile money initiatives, MTN wants to build what group CEO Rob Shuter calls the “WeChat of Africa”. WeChat, developed by Naspers affiliate Tencent, is by far the largest IM app in China and offers a wide range of in-app services from chat to payments.
This is the key deal why MTN has a real chance in this instant messaging business: it has the infrastructure and can make people do instant messaging even when they have no data by fusing SMS and IM. WhatsApp cannot do that today – you must have data before you can do WhatsApp or WeChat but MTNChat [a name I just gave it] will work even when you do not have data [MTN will surely bill the SMS implying that it re-allocates funds from voice to enable data-solution to work]. MTN sees this investment as part of its future: “We are extending our Bright strategy to build MTN into a digital operator with a major focus on the fintech, digital, enterprise and wholesale business areas,” MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter said in a statement.
MTN’s Duality Element
This vision is huge and MTN needs to run it with the construct of duality element. Yes, it can give out data to help people use MTNChat to ensure MTNChat grows. As that happens, it will take market share from WhatsApp. Amazon loses money on ecommerce, crippling physical retailers which in turn go online only to sign-up for Amazon Web Services which remains very profitable. Alibaba makes listing on Alibaba.com easy but makes money via Alipay which is the default payment on Alibaba. So, let MTNChat have that interface with the voice and data business in MTN while using MTNChat to create new sources of growth revenue. This is a great double play opportunity.
For Samsung, provided Apple continues to place orders for chips, it would be fine irrespective of what happens in its mobile phone business where Samsung has been lagging: “Samsung posted lower-than-expected sales of its flagship Galaxy 9 smartphones”. But having the Galaxy series ensures that Samsung does not have to secure external orders before innovating in the chip business.
Yes, provided the chip business has an internal customer (the mobile device unit, the oasis in my strategy), Samsung will continue to commit resources as the oasis has removed most of the risks in investing billions of dollars to build new factories in the chip business. Yes, the mobile device unit (the oasis) makes the chip business better by being a “reliable customer”, irrespective of whatever happens externally. That is the heart of the one oasis and the center of Double Play Strategy in business.
All Together
The future of telcos in Africa cannot be selling voice and data credits. What MTN plans to do here is what is needed to keep this industry competitive as ICT utilities through the OTT solutions distort revenue models. As noted in the earnings call, MTN is seeing huge numbers even as it targets “double-digit growth in service revenue”.
It increased its subscriber base by 16 million to 233 million customers across 21 markets in Africa and the Middle East. The number of active data users increased by 10 million to 79 million and the active mobile money subscriber base rose to 27 million.
My only recommendation to MTN is one thing: add stablecoin features on MTNChat so that you can use it for remittance and many other things in respective local economies. Yes, with stablecoins, the cryptocurrency becomes pegged to the local currency removing the uncertainty we see in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Possibly, with this solution, we can hit that product no fintech or bank has ever built in Africa: a location-, currency-agnostic intra-African payment and remittance system.
The Digital Product No Fintech Or Bank Is Building in Africa [Video]
The Path to Production: Zenvus Loci Partner Update
To already qualified Zenvus Loci partners and intending partners [apply by sending email here], Zenvus Loci moves to the new phase: assembly. Our boards are superb after all quality assurance tests. It is a beauty. We have since moved to testing the firmware and all the behind-the-scene software that makes electronics work.
This is our first consumer product; we typically make solutions used by companies and government entities. But they are all the same thing: machines feeding on electrons!
I am looking for business development partners across Africa with solid local structures; reach out to me or click for my team. They will send the necessary documents.
Win with Zenvus Loci.
AirBnB Finds Hotels, Now It Has a Stronger Business Model in Nigeria
AirBnB has done what many expected: add hotel reservations at scale. Yes, renting parlors and tree-homes will not do it, for a long time, because many people especially in trust-challenged developing world will not sign-up in droves. So, it is a beauty that AirBnB is now going to offer hotel reservations.
The $31 billion home-sharing site said today (March 7) it had signed a deal to acquire HotelTonight, a curated booking site for boutique and independent hotels. The companies will operate as separate brands for now, while over time it will add select boutique HotelTonight rooms to the Airbnb platform.
The deal price was not disclosed. HotelTonight’s fundraising round in 2017 valued the company at about $460 million.
The acquisition follows Airbnb’s efforts to add more professional and curated listings—more hotel-like, you might say—to its site ahead of a rumored initial public offering. In January, Airbnb said the number of rooms available on its site that hosts classified as hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, or resorts increased 152% over the previous year, though it didn’t provide the underlying numbers on that inventory.
This new strategy will help AirBnB grow in Nigeria where I have noted that the company is struggling. Unfortunately, the implication is that Hotels.ng and Jumia Travels will now be on the crosshairs of AirBnB. As that happens, customers win via competition in the sector.
The root of this issue is Nigeria, and it is a big problem that is evident to most entrepreneurs, depending on the business sector. Because of the low level of trust, especially in digital business, Nigerians like “cash and carry” transactions, where that cash now includes digital payments.In essence, we want to spend money on something and get the gratification immediately. Or better, we want to inspect before we pay.
All Together
The commodification of trust is an industry challenge in Nigeria. That is the weakest link of AirBnB business. But with hotel chains, people will feel safer. The fact is this: paying for a stranger’s living room, just because you saw it online is not what many Nigerians are open to. But paying for a hotel is assumed to be less risky because the hotel is there unlike a home. Uber does not have this issue because the service is offered before payment is made to the Uber system. In AirBnB, the reservation is done before the service is done, creating a new layer, that requires deepening of trust first. With a hotel booking site, AirBnB opens a new dimension in its business which will be promising in Nigeria.
“Ndu bu isi” [Life is first]
“Ndu bu isi” [Life is first] is one of the most popular names in Igbo land. Parents name Ndubuisi because for everything one must live to find success. Ndubuisi removes defeatism with unbelievable optimism that if there is life, there will be progress. So, daily, the Igbo man or woman thrives to see how to keep moving because if that life stays, one day, success will come.
As he lives that life, elders will push him on the path of “Igba mbo” [do something no matter how small] and keep pushing hard and harder. It is that Igba mbo that will bring success, and once that person begins, help will come. Yes, “Onye aghana nwanne ya” [you cannot forget your brethren], they say.
I join the queen of the big screen, Genevieve Nnaji, to ask for every tribe to vote in peace especially in Lagos. Igbos in Lagos are just there to live. Some may like to vote for PDP, please they should NOT be attacked – it is their constitutional rights in Nigeria. They are not taking anyone’s land – for them to find more markets, they wish their hosts progress! Yes, no tribe invests in the host communities than Igbos.
Peace Nigeria especially in Lagos as we vote tomorrow.
Genevieve Nnaji wrote:
“Ndi Yoruba na Igbo-Phobia”
The Igbos have never been the problem with Nigeria or wherever they find themselves. This is not ethnic jingoism or bigotry. The Igbos will never foment troubles where they are because they know that “Isi Kote Ebu, Ogbaa Ya” They also know deep in their hearts that “Ife Onye Metalu, Obulu.” The Igbos will never kill others to live because they believe that “Ndu bu Isi” Yes, murder or “Igbu Ochu” is one of the most despicable crimes amongst the Igbos. The Igbos believe that once you are alive, there is always a way left to succeed. The “Igba Mbo” is perhaps the best gift of the Igboman.Yes, the Igbos struggle to make it in life. They are industrious, assiduous & sedulous. The Igbos also believe in helping one another. That’s why you hear “Onye Aghana Nwanne Ya.” There is also no lateness in making it in life amongst the Igbos because “Ebe Onye Oso Ruru, Onye Ije Geru” and Uwa Mgbede Ka Mma” Igbo businessmen are scattered all over the world.
Wherever they are, they make their homes, building houses & gentrifying districts. For most lgbos, “Ala bu Otu.” Igbos are liberal, accommodating & very friendly to foreigners. This is because they are themselves scattered all over the world as immigrants.
Na Lagos, Ndi Igbo n’agba oso ahia, Igbo n’ere gala na go slow, Igbo n’aru conductor, umu Igbo bu importers buru manufacturers, Igbo no into clearing and forwarding, Igbo n’esi nri, umunna n’ere motor parts, Igbo n’aru police na oru aka. Ndi Igbo adiro selective with jobs maka na onye ruo, orie. But the Igbos will never take your lands or countries from you.
The Igboman thinks about his native home. Yes, you will never provide him with “akpu”, bitter leaves soup, palm wine, isi ewu & other scrumptious dishes he misses at Igboland. While living in your country or State, never you imagine the Igbo is not thinking about his village. My friend, he does that everyday. Where ever the Igbos ubicate, their hearts are not far from their native homes.
Stop killing the Igbos. They will only make their money & go back to their land. And they know how to make legitimate money. Yes, where you see nothing, the Igbos with their gimlet eyes see “Ego.”
So when next you meet an Igboman, ask him “Nna, how far?” If you are lucky & he had done a successful business deal, he might just take you out for lunch. Yes, the Igbos like sharing. On the other hand, if business is low, he will tell you the normal clichés… “Obodo bu Igwe” or Ife an’eme Adiro Easy” or “Ogbogu di High.” Look at his face closely as he laments. You will see no signs of defeatism. Mind you, he might just be carrying 1Million naira in his pockets. Just that the money had already been budgeted for… “Sontin…es!!!”
Daalu.
LinkedIn Comment on Feed
I think Genevieve Nnaji finished work here, that makes her a real Nwa-ada Igbo. The message is very clear, the squabbles and altercations are uncalled for. You cannot successfully intimidate an Igboman, it’s always counterproductive.
Lagos has always pride itself as Centre of Excellence, a cosmopolitan city per excellence. When you now begin to hear some of these disturbing news and events, it makes nonsense of every good thing Lagos is known for, even the ‘suffering and smiling’ disposition that is legendary in the land.
Politics and elections will always come around, but what doesn’t come around again is a life taken out. The fear mongering and rumours have been swelling, not a good sign. Nigeria has already taken enough beaten in its different parts, adding Lagos to it may finally bring everyone down.
If one cannot freely vote for any party of his/her choice, then there’s no need running campaigns and talking about elections; it’s a complete waste of time. We can all do much better!
God bless Nigeria.