Social media giant Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., faces prosecution in South Africa for unfairly trying to block local startups from using its WhatsApp Business Application Programming Interface (API), a government agency said Monday. It comes after the country’s competition regulator, the Competition Commission, said in a statement that it has referred Meta Platforms and its subsidiaries WhatsApp Inc and Facebook South Africa to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution for abusing its market dominance. According to Anadolu Agency, the commission alleges that Facebook in July 2020 threatened to
An African startup described as the “booking.com for healthcare” by its founder has raised $1.5 million from its most recent round. RecoMed acts as a marketplace where patients can find and book services with healthcare professionals across South Africa. Sheraan Amod first founded the company after a brief stay in the U.S, where he experienced for the first time what it was like to book medical appointments online, which wasn’t the case back in his home country, South Africa. Mr. Amod then returned and created the company he refers to as
Bolt is set to roll out electric taxi options in South Africa four months after introducing e-bike food delivery services as part of its mission to expand across the continent rapidly. The move comes amid plans by Uber to test a carpooling and rideshare service in Nairobi, with ideas to also roll it out in Ghana and Nigeria. Bolt’s electric taxi option is part of the company’s “green category” initiative. The system lets riders only hail an electric or a hybrid vehicle – which is considered more environmentally friendly. The firm
Telkom has reportedly dropped Netflix Inc – meaning the app will no longer be available on the South African phone and internet company’s set-top box from October. Content Executive Wanda Mkhize announced that a deal between the parties had ended and would not be renewed. But other content partnerships will be announced in due course; she told Bloomberg. It’s not clear whether Netflix has plans to build a different route to consumers and existing subscribers in South Africa now that its relationship with Telkom has ended. The media has been
