If you missed it, a new piece of legislation came into effect in June that requires all cellphone users to register their sim cards. I’m not going to get into why I agree with this and why I don’t, because I have my own views on it’s effectiveness.
However, I will share why I won’t be registering my sim card. In South Africa, identity theft is still a reality yet we are obliged to hand over all of our personal information to anyone who asks for it. I’m quite annoyed by this as I hate filling in documentation, but more importantly I don’t feel comfortable sharing my personal information with just anybody.
In the article, they mention that “all information will kept confidential in a secure database”. I would like to question how secure that database is if I can go to numerous outlets around the country to register. If it is so secure and confidential, then what happens if I need to update my information? How does someone at one of these outlets assist me? If they can retrieve and update my information, then I don’t trust the system because there are thousands of outlets and thousands of people who can access this information.
I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit and this is what I think is going to happen in 18 months when the registration window expires for existing sim cards. All the major mobile operator networks (Vodacom, MTN and Cell C) will submit a letter to government stating that they cannot de-active the sim cards that have not registered due to the large quantity and the effect it will have on their business. We will be granted an extension period.
I had the privilege of being invited to speak at Internetix, an annual conference hosted by Internet Solutions, which happens in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. I was given the topic “What If A Phone Was a Library”, where I focused around access to information via the mobile web and mobile applications. I also touched on the commerce opportunities that have been created as well as some of the trends around location and mobile video.
Below is the presentation I gave at the 2nd Annual Mobile Marketing Summit hosted by Marketing Mix. I spend a great deal of my time working on mobile targeting capabilities, technology and theories at TinyImpact. The presentation was just a high level introduction into the targeting capabilities that mobile as a medium offers.
The most common topic discussed in the South African start-up community has been around the lack of venture capital (VC) or the ease of access to venture capital in South Africa. I am no VC expert, however I have had my fair share of discussions with them as well as people who have had experience in the VC game.
In the venture capital game it’s all about increasing the return on their investment in your business. Unfortunately, South Africa’s internet population can hardly be considered a market in global terms and we also lack a VC eco-system. Therefore, your start-up needs to be thinking global from day one.
If you are thinking global and raising venture capital, please start thinking about raising in dollar / euro conversions. While R5mil is a lot of cash, globally it would be considered as angel funding. It doesn’t make sense to raise angel funding under the label of venture capital.
I also get the feeling that entrepreneurs in South Africa are some how excited by the hype of venture capital and think it’s their best bet. I urge you to please take a look at the types of funding available to you. I would rather consider early stage venture capital once your product / service needs the capital to expand rather than to keep it a float or build a prototype.
The most important advice I can share is that you should build something tangible and don’t go looking for venture capital with a concept. If your product or service is already generating revenue then you are in an even better position to negotiate. The more risk a VC has to take, the less negotiating power you have.
There are many articles and blog posts on the internet about venture capital, however the best I have come a cross is a talk by Guy Kawasaki. I suggest you watch it over here.
I just thought I would share a recent interview I had with the guys from the online video show From the Couch while I was down in Cape Town the other day. David Perel rushed down to the Cape Town airport to ask me a couple of questions. I told him what I’ve been up to and finally broke the news about TinyImpact otherwise known as Project Wolf. Enjoy.
A Young Entrepreneur & Speaker. I am the CEO and Founder of Aduity. I use this blog to share my journey as a young entrepreneur and thoughts on business, marketing and technology. More about me.