As ride-hailing company, Lyft (yes, the other Uber), begins the journey to the public bourse, we are now seeing its financials: they do not look extremely party-like. The company lost nearly $1 billion last year even as it racked up $2.2 billion, about twice the revenue number for 2017. And the big one – the ARPR (average revenue per ride) is $3.56. Simply, I do not see how these business models can work in Africa where the profit gestation period is expected to be short; otherwise, the investors will give up. Lyft, from its prospectus, is even telling investors that it may not make money in the next 11 years!
So Lyft is speedy. But like its archrival Uber—which has disclosed performance data publicly ahead of its IPO filing—Lyft’s results are atrocious by any objective standards. Yes, it has proven it can grow. It racked up $2.2 billion in revenue last year, about double the year before. But Lyft lost nearly a billion dollars from operations in 2018. Its cash balance declined by $600 million. And while the number of rides it provides continues to tick up, its average revenue per ride is tiny: $3.56 in 2018.
Lyft makes a virtue of its focus. It only provides transportation, primarily through rides in cars but also through bikes and scooters. Revenue from the latter category wasn’t material last year, however. Lyft’s simpler business model will get chewed over by investors as they compare it to Uber’s. The rap on Uber is that the growth in its core business is anemic, while its hoped-for bright spots are its prepared-food delivery and freight forwarding businesses. Lyft has neither of these product lines.
[…]
In case any of this was a little confusing, let me break it down for you: Lyft is telling prospective investors it might not make money for 11 more years. (Fortune Newsletter)
Because of these loss-happy business models, I return to my old prediction that Uber and Lyft will merge in coming years. Yes, they will just give up after all these losses and decide to start generating income. Because the industry is so young and fragile, regulators will not mind: similar rivalries have ended together:: Elance/Odesk (now UpWork), Groupon / LivingSocial, Sirius / XM and Rover / DogVacay.
I will be live on Deutsche Welle or DW. DW is Germany’s public international broadcaster with services in 30 languages.
I will speak on Business in Africa on a TV program.
Date: March 14
Time: 5:45 p.m. CET. That is 4:45 p.m. UTC.
Meanwhile, the exhibition of my design in Germany will end this month at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Germany. If you have not visited and want to see my works, you have the next three weeks to visit.
As always, I thank the German Federal Cultural Foundation, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the United States USAID for supporting some of my works. (And my beautiful Nigerian Government for subsidizing my undergraduate education in FUT, Owerri, Nigeria).
Oppo, a leading global smartphone brand, is known as been focused on providing products infused with art and innovative technology. Its key elements are young, trend-setting and beauty, delivering enriched digital experiences to its customers.
In the past ten years Oppo has been focused on developing smartphones with mobile photography technology breakthroughs. It pioneered selfie beautification and was the first brand to launch smartphones with 5MP and 16MP front cameras. And it was among the companies that pioneered the motorized rotating camera, the UltraHD feature, and 5X Dual Camera Zoom technology. Oppo’s Selfie Expert F series which launched in 2016 drove the selfie trend in the smartphone industry. In 2017, it was ranked as the world’s fourth smartphone brand globally by IDC, a consultancy.
With 5G as the future of intelligent communication, bringing new possibilities for creating, imagination and closer connectivity, Oppo showcased what a 5G experience will look like at its Innovation Event during the recently held Mobile World Congress at Barcelona with its 5G smartphone and 5G Landing Project.
Its first 5G smartphone will augment customer experience with 4k, 8k video download |upload| cloudplay, 3D video calling, 5G Cloud gaming and multiplayer AR|VR game, instore navigation, AR shopping integrated, immersive, entertainment everywhere, etc. Oppo showcased the 5G possibilities with hologram calls to AR shopping as well as demonstration of perfect scenarios to use 10x lossless zoom. With the world’s first 10x lossless zoom technology, it further empowers users and provides everyone the opportunity to become professional photographers without any loss of quality.
10x lossless zoom technology is an innovation created with industry leading camera specification including a triple lens camera structure consisting of a telephoto lens, ultrawide angle lens and main camera. To provide further value to users, it also introduced optical image stabilization on both the main camera and the telephoto lens to achieve higher antishake accuracy that brings people closer to the world around them.
Transsion Holdings, the parent company of the leading smartphone brands for Nigerians and the rest of Africa – Tecno, Infinix, Itel – needs to invest in R&D to deliver 5G enabled smartphones for Nigerians and the continent. Tecno will see more competitions as Xiaomi and Oppo make Africa an important market in their businesses.
Already, the Nigerian Communications Commission has declared 2020 as the year from which telecommunication services operators will begin the deployment of 5G technology to help deepen the economic development of the nation.
Simply, with OPPO readiness on 5G, Tecno could lose its market position in the next few years, in Africa, if it does not work hard to prepare for this 5G future.
Good news from JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) as it sees more young people aspiring to attend universities in Nigeria: “Meanwhile the bulletin also noted that the slash in the UTME fee by the federal government had increased the number of candidates who want to sit for the examination.” Very happy for the voices we put together for the action effected for that change.
That said, the plan to use biometrics in JAMB exams will set a new basis for universities and all tertiary institutions in Nigeria to do so. After all, what is the value of JAMB using biometrics if the universities cannot use same biometrics to validate that incoming freshmen are the same JAMB had tested. So, as JAMB marches ahead with biometrics, contractors are already smiling because universities will need same equipment. Had NIMC (National Identity Management Commission) been fully operational, Nigeria could have consolidated all these disparate databases in one.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will not rescind its decision on the use of biometrics in the conduct of its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This is contained in the board’s weekly bulletin issued on Sunday in Lagos.
According to the bulletin, the importance of biometrics in the conduct of the board’s examination cannot be overemphasised.
It noted that the Biometrics Verification Machine (BVM) was introduced by the board in an attempt to get rid of the numerous forms of examination malpractice.
It said the BVM was a security mechanism used for the authentication of candidates’ identity as it provided access to the individual data, based on physiological characteristics.
We need to fight exam malpractices, and using biometrics will surely help JAMB. Yet, it does not end there. The problem is that every university, polytechnic and college of education will get in line, embracing biometrics. And just like that, personal bio-data becomes permanently warehoused in schools which are not specifically suited for such. One will hope that brokers will not pay to trade on them!
Then after schools, employers will do their own biometrics to confirm that the same student is the very one applying for jobs.
Certainly, government needs to get NIMC going to avoid this biometric paralysis in the nation. It does not need to be this way. Yes, Nigeria cannot be a biometric nation, from telecoms (SIM card) to banking (BVN), and now university entrance exam, you do not need to kill more than one tiger to be nicknamed “the killer of tigers”.
Isn’t it ridiculous that in a country that is hell-bent on centralising governance now abhors the very things that actually deserve centralisation? We are really specialist in doing things the opposite way.
We run a federal system that is actually unitary in practice, then we have the NUC lording it over all the universities. You have the ASUU as a bargaining conglomerate, then we have JAMB deciding who the universities admit. With all the unification conglomerates all over the place, even when they are really the problems, we have done everything to keep them alive and kicking, while showing contempt and disdain to any idea that questions their efficacy and usefulness.
On the other hand, Immigration Service is maintaining its own database and biometrics, FRSC have theirs, the banks have their BVN, the telecoms have theirs, INEC is there, even Customs have theirs; and in all of these paralyses, we still have a certain NIMC, with government paying salaries there, only God knows what its job actually is. Now JAMB wants to join the league of Biometrics Keepers Association of Nigeria…
Other than awarding contracts and getting kickbacks, no one else can explain why we need disparate databases to keep an individual’s biometrics.
Social media giant Facebook unveiled NG Hub, in Lagos Nigeria, in 2018. The NG Hub was its first flagship community hub space in Africa. It is partnering with Co-Creation Hub, a community innovation lab, and will help to train 50,000 Nigerians on digital skills.
Besides, the Hub came with the launch of FbStart Accelerator Programme, a research and mentorship-driven six months programme aimed at empowering startups and students with $20,000 in equity free funding. Also, it provides technical and business mentorship from Facebook and CCHub’s network, an office space with internet, access to Facebook, and partner credits to optimize their growth.
The Hub also does Virtual Acceleration for student teams (Bsc, Msc or PhD) working on transforming their ideas or research into working prototypes with equity free funding of $5,000( Bsc), Msc($10,000) and PhD($15,000) along with technical and business mentorship, an office space with fast internet at partner hubs scattered across the country, free credits from Facebook and product credits. Largely, the focus is on those building solutions using artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality.
The following startups are currently working with the FbStart Accelerator programme in Nigeria.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
RoadPreppers: Founded by Samuel Odeloye which has developed Lara.ng, a chatbot for public transportation which gives information on routes, estimated cost of transport and time, helping citizens to plan daily movements properly.
Say Peace: Founded by Salisu Gaya which uses machine learning to monitor, detect, and analyze hate speech on social media in real time to prevent violence in Nigeria.
Vertsark: A web based platform which uses machine learning to predict, prevent and manage disease outbreaks for the benefit of livestock farmers, veterinarians and public health. This team won the Google Project Enable Challenge Prize of $250,000 for Social Entrepreneurs making impact.
Plantheuse: This uses artificial intelligence to diagnose plant diseases and suggests solutions to farmers and agric extension workers.
DeepQuestAI: Moses and John Olafenwa launched Deepstack, a suite of dockerized AI server software that enables developers to easily build, deploy and manage AI powered applications on their private servers and edge IoT gateways.
Insyt: Founded by Ofoedu Frank Ebuka is a data analytics platform which uses AI to collect real time data from social media for businesses, helping them know the public perception of their brands, and allowing them to keep track of online conversations about their brands and products. It is supported in English and pidgin, and works to measure the impact of marketing campaigns, interactions with customers and gathers valuable consumer insights.
Chiniki: Guard founded by Abdulhakim Bashir is a monitoring analysis and reporting platform for security cameras, using AI to estimate human poses, and to detect suspicions activities (like shoplifting and theft) in retail stores.
FBStart NG Project Leads
INTERNET OF THINGS
Gricd: Founded by Oghenetega Iortim and Richard Aimola; they developed Gricd Frij, a cold chain box for storage and transportation of temperature sensitive items like food, blood and vaccines at regulated temperatures of up to 20 degrees Celsius with real time storage temperature, and location monitoring technology and battery, which lasts up to 48 hours.
Cycles: Founded by Damilola Soladoye is a bike sharing company which uses smart bikes for bike sharing, redefining how people commune in private estates, universities and other gated communities to create sustainability and reduce carbon emissions for a greener earth.
Trep Labs: Founded by Taofeek Olalekan which has developed RealDrip, an IoT solution which prevents back flow of blood during drip treatment by monitoring flow rate, volume administered, and automating the process.
UpNepa.ng: Founded by Salaudeen Abdulrahman is an IOT powered platform that monitors, records and predicts electricity supply.
Smart Electricity: Founded by Livinus Ezeh is using wireless electricity to power appliances in homes and offices.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Project Move: Founded by Tade Ajiboye, it is a VR accessory which significantly improves immersion and interaction in mobile driven VR systems.
Quadron Studios: Founded by Uche Anisiuba which has developed QVES, a Virtual Reality Safety training solution that prepares enterprise workers for emerging situations by the use of immersive virtual training experiences.
Kainji: Founded by Damilola Okelana, it uses VR to teach users how to drive and be road aware.
Another startup in this programme worthy of mention is Doctoora, a platform which makes it easy for medical practitioners to engage in private healthcare practice, outside the confines of their primary places of work, by aggregating space capacity (like clinic spaces, consumables, physical facilities, workforce, wards, theater, dialysis, and diagnostics) across standard health facilities, and rent out to users on a structured payment basis.
