MTN’s Ayoba hits 1 Million Users, Alibaba’s Singles’ Day Hits Record $38b, and Facebook Removes 3.2 Billion Fake Accounts

Africa

Visa acquires stake in Interswitch to expand service in Africa

Visa has acquired a stake in Interswitch as the two companies plan to expand payment services across Africa, it has been reported. The deal pegs Interswitch’s valuation at about $1 billion, making it one of the most valuable FinTechs in Africa. While each party would maintain its independent solutions, the agreement would create an instant acceptance network that would make payments easier and faster across their respective markets. Interswitch CEO and founder Mitchell Elegbe said, “I am delighted that Interswitch has formed a partnership with Visa, with whom we plan to drive the next phase of transformation in the African payments landscape.” Interswitch offers digital payment solutions across Nigerian and other countries in Africa.

MTN’s Ayoba messaging app reaches 1 million users

MTN has announced that there are now 1 million active monthly users on its Ayoba messaging platform, Citi News Room has reported. Ayoba was designed by MTN and is now available in 8 countries including Ghana, Cameroon, and Afghanistan. MTN Group hopes to build an open digital platform around Ayoba to enable third-party innovation that would benefit users of the messaging platform. MTN Group President, Rob Shuter said, “We believe that our customers in Africa and the Middle East deserve a communication platform that expresses our unique voice, honors our rich identity through local languages, and addresses our customers’ specific needs and challenges by offering a data-included offering for MTN users, mobile money transfers and locally relevant content via channels.”

Asia

Alibaba’s Singles’ Day hits $38 billion record

Alibaba’s sales for its Singles’ Day blitz recorded a massive $38 billion record, Reuters has reported. This is despite a weak sales growth rate of 26% year-on-year for the Chinese company. The 24-hour Singles’ Day sales started in 2009 and has since overtaken a similar single day sales strategy called Cyber Monday in the United States. This year’s bonanza started with a live performance by popstar Taylor Swift followed by livestreaming marketing from 1,000 different brands. “Nearly all our brands have opted for livestreaming promotions sometime this year,” Josh Gardner, CEO of Kung Fu Data who helps overseas businesses sell on Alibaba’s Tmall. More than half of the retailers on Tmall livestreamed their wares on Singles’ Day.

Toshiba posts record quarterly profits in 2 years

Japan’s Toshiba has recorded its highest profit in 2 years and plans to buy back three of its listed subsidiaries, it has been reported. The company recorded a $405.41 million profit for the quarter ended September as it cut costs. Toshiba would use the windfall to buy back Toshiba Plant Systems & Services, Nishishiba Electric, and NuFlare Technology off the stock exchange. The buyback is a response to shareholders calling for more control over its asset portfolio. At the same time, the Japanese government raised conflict of interest concerns regarding listed companies and their publicly traded subsidiaries. Moving on from its profit-making quarter, Toshiba is pursuing a 5-year plan with a profit target of 8-10% through to 2024.

Europe

UK parties suffer cyberattacks

UK’s two main political parties were hit with back-to-back cyberattacks just weeks ahead of an election, Reuters has reported. This comes after security services warned elements in Russia would try to disrupt the election process through cyberattacks or via social media. The Labour Party said it had “experienced a sophisticated and large-scale cyberattack on Labour digital platforms.” The Conservative also suffered similar multiple attacks, though no data was compromised in the process. Both parties suffered a Distributed-Denial-of-Service attack which bombards servers with enough traffic to knock the websites offline. The December 12 polls has been called by Boris Johnson in a bid to try and break the Brexit deadlock.

Tesla to build Gigafactory 4 in Berlin

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to build Gigafactory 4, a vehicle manufacturing plant, in Berlin area, it has been reported. The factory will host a design and engineering centre. On Twitter, Musk added that the factory will build batteries, powertrains, and vehicles. “Everyone knows that German engineering is outstanding and that’s part of the reason we are locating our Gigafactory Europe in Germany,” Musk said about his company’s plans. Plans to build the factory in UK was scuppered due to Brexit. This comes after Tesla has invested some $2 billion in a new factory in China to beat sanctions resulting from the US-China trade war.

The Americas

Facebook to launch Facebook Pay across all platforms

Facebook has announced plans to launch a unified payment system called Facebook Pay across all platforms, it has been reported. This would allow users on Instagram and WhatsApp to make payments without having to leave the respective platforms. They would also be able to send or receive money on the platforms. In addition, Facebook intends to unify messaging infrastructure across all platforms. This would allow the company to offer targeted ads based on user preferences. As part of the security features, users can protect their data via PIN and biometric information.

Facebook removes 3.2 billion fake accounts

Facebook announced that it removed 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September this year alone, a report has said. In addition, the social media giant purged millions of suicide and child abuse posts. More than 12 million posts depicting child sexual exploitation and child nudity from both Instagram and Facebook were deleted. Also, the company proactively detected posts affiliated to terrorists on Facebook at least 98.5% of the time; on Instagram, the rate was 92.2%. Regarding posts on self-harm, the social media giant announced it had removed 2.5 million such content. In recent reports, Facebook has said it would encrypt its messaging services further to grant users more control over privacy. However, law enforcement agencies fear this would make it easier for predators and child pornographers to go about their duties without detection.