At this time of year, shopping malls can be a nightmare bursting at the seams with throngs of jostling people. If you’re searching for the ultimate gift at the perfect price, online shopping offers many advantages: It can be a real time-saver as it allows you the convenience of sourcing the best price without having to traipse from store to store. However, to get the best out of your online shopping experience, it is important to be aware of online security ...

'Tis the season to be jolly careful when it comes to online shopping… South Africa sits in third place as one of the leading cybercrime hotspots in the world according to the Norton Cybercrime Report 2013. Then a Columinate Survey that examined trends in online banking from 2012 to 2014 found that one in five online bankers have been a victim of fraud and that 62% have been targeted at some point over the past two years. Add to this ...

Things are looking good for the African startup space. We've already revealed how much established players, especially in the ecommerce space, have benefited from funding this year, but it looks like early stage companies haven't done too badly. At least that's what research from entrepreneurial social network VC4Africa shows. The research, which comes from surveys of members of the VC4Africa community, shows that invested capital more than doubled compared to last year’s research: from US$12 million to US$26.9-million. And the ...

South African crowdfunding site Thundafund is set to launch a community crowdfunding platform within the next month, confirming what Ventureburn sources have been saying for some time now. The company, which has hosted some of South Africa's most successful crowdfunding campaigns, is reportedly looking to spin off the part of the site responsible for funding things like albums, pieces of art and theatrical performances. The new site, which Disrupt Africa revealed will be called Ripple, is designed to ...

In today's Uber-inspired world, everything seems to be on-demand. So why shouldn't your radio be? After turning down three potential acquisitions, South African PVR-for-radio startup Iono.fm finds itself in an interesting space, somewhere in between the traditional radio industry and the modern digital podcast wave. The question is whether or not -- in between meeting these two worlds -- the startup will be able to capitalise on its unique position, or get cut too thin somewhere in between. Iono.fm's idea for an ...

Ecommerce is at the epicenter of Africa’s thriving economy. With internet penetration rapidly spreading across the region, this represents huge potential which has hitherto been untapped. Africa Internet Group, one of the continent’s leading e-businesses, ranks Africa’s top seven e-commerce friendly countries. Africa is a burgeoning and largely unexplored consumer market. According to McKinsey and Co. consumer facing industries in Africa are predicted to grow by over US$400-million in 2020. This includes ecommerce, which is gaining momentum throughout the region. AIG, an ...

The eCommerce Africa Confex, set to take place early next year, has announced its speaker list, with BidorBuy CEO Jaco Jonker and Yuppiechef director Paul Galatis set to take up keynote slots. Jonker will be sharing the steps to your first online sale during his presentation. He will provide a layout of the basic steps required in order to make your first sale and the importance of getting to market quickly. Galatis meanwhile will discuss unconventional approaches to winning loyalty, ...

Online payment gateways play a crucial role in driving ecommerce in South Africa and the whole world for that matter. The right gateways can give merchants the ability to cut down on transaction fees and create a safe and easy experience for the customer. I-Pay thinks it has the answer to the online payment space's biggest needs -- Electronic Funds Transfers. When one think of innovation in the payments space, Electronics Fund Transfer (or EFT) is probably not the first thing ...

Zambian airtime distributor StreetCred has secured an exclusive partnership with Nomanini -- a South African-based mobile point of sale service that specialises in facilitating cash transactions in informal markets. The partnership will apparently see StreetCred encourage Zambian mobile operators and airtime distributors to join it in switching to Nomanini’s platform. For the Zambian company, an association with Nomanini can only be beneficial. The South African PoS service has had a good run of funding rounds in the past couple of years. Most ...

Cape Town headquartered mobile transaction company wiGroup has taken top honours at the PwC Accelerator ‘Local to Global’ expo, beating out nine other tech companies from around the world. The award was announced in Luxembourg after the ten participating companies presented their solutions to a panel of independent international judges. “The programme has brought together extraordinary people from around the world, and the strategic advice, knowledge sharing and general belief in building global businesses has been inspiring," says wiGroup ...