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Tuesday, 14 June 2022

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Good morning!

Dennis here!

We're trying new things with our newsletter and today's might feel a bit different. Rather than have only a bit of my take in the intro of the newsletter, why not make the newsletter entirely my take on the news that our editors think is important?

Let me know what you think. Shoot me an email [email protected].

Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Summary of the news

  • Africa-made shows, actors, and producers will benefit from Multichoice's new 2 years investment plan
  • Netflix stock rose by 24% after it announced Squid Game season 2
  • Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund invests in Nigerian startup, CredPal
  • Amazon called the cops and fired workers in an attempt to stop its staff from unionizing
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MultiChoice's investment in African content makers is for who?

Technext Round1
MultiChoice is moving in the right direction. The idea that Africans are somehow deserving of the most basic and terribly made content has in recent times more than ever proven to be a myth. I say this as a guy that writes a tech newsletter and is obsessed with the Real Housewives of Lagos.

Its Chief Executive, Calvo Mawela said that the company is pivoting its investment from mostly foreign content to more locally made content. That for the sake of God, I hope meets international standards, else HBO obsessive who had come to Showmax for HBO content will just have to look for it elsewhere.

People tend to go onto our decoder and use all the different platforms through us, the company recently started offering Disney Plus, adding a further revenue stream.

Many stories can be redeployed in different African countries and still resonate, adding to savings.

Showmax is relatively affordable, starting at 1,200 naira per month. But I've always wondered if it really will be impossible for MultiChoice, the owners of DSTV to offer a single subscription for both Showmax and DSTV? What role will that play in making this investment an even bigger success, now that users won't be getting as much foreign content?

I wager a lot; because there are more DStv subscribers than there are Showmax subscribers on the planet. And DStv subscribers are more loyal than Showmax' who they have to compete with Netflix aggressively for (Good luck with that).

Statista says that Showmax has over "861 thousand users." An interesting lexical choice by the way - "users." Just saying. While DStv has over 10.23 million subscribers.

They are very different content with very different audiences. But after paying for DStv or GOtv, which many households in Nigeria pay for, why should users pay for Showmax as well in a separate bundle? Why not offer them as the same bundle, that is part of the DSTV/Showmax package?

Will I feel compelled to renew my DStv subscription, which I don't watch a lot if it comes with The Real Housewives of Lagos, which I watch a lot of, so that when I have a guest they watch CNN with me?

Investment in more African content is good. But who is it for? DStv or Showmax subscribers? Or both. Only Calvo Mawela can decide.
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‘Squid Game’ stock rises to 24% after Netflix announced season 2

Amazon
Is Netflix stock out of the woods? Not quite. But it announced a new Squid Game and now its stock has gone up? one might be thinking.

The forces that made Netflix's stock go down in the first place, are still at play.

Squid Game Executive producer, Kim Ji-Yeon said:

We are working on the script right now and making the form of the story. But there’s definitely a lot of pressure on how to make [Season 2] even better. I know that a lot of the different fans and audiences have enjoyed the series very much, but really we’re focusing on how to make it even more joyful to the global audience.

Netflix said that it would be making users who share their passwords pay more, a move that made it lose over 35% of its subscribers, making its shares drop from over $700 a share to less than $400.

But the company, still bent on collecting as many coins as possible, has refused to reverse course. At the end of the day, it will be a decision that users will make, but not now.

Netflix has largely refused to license some of its content to other platforms for viewing, even as it has paid for licensing deals with other platforms for their content.

HBO Max, on the other hand, has been on a licensing spree with the BBC, Showmax etc. I should add HBO Max has my money will win the streaming war, especially as the Game of Thrones prequel lands in a few weeks.

What will determine if Netflix regains its former place as the leader of streaming will be making smart bets to draw users in. Content, even the best of it is good. But what is better is paying less for it.
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Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund invests in Nigerian startup, CredPal

BitCoin
It's always a breath of fresh air to see African investors putting their money where their mouth is, making big bets on African startups. This has been happening even more often in recent months. Eden Life buying Kenya's Lynk, Future Africa investing in lots of startups. This is a sign of progress.

Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund has invested an undisclosed amount in CredPal. Why so secretive though? Why not tell us how much they got, especially as this it's CASF first time investing in a Nigerian startup? But it makes sense for CASF as CredPal is eyeing key markets with this fund like Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, and Cameroon.

The Co-Founder and CEO of CredPal, Fehintolu Olaogun said:

This support from Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund reinforces our mission to improve the quality of life of Africans through easy access to consumer credit. My co-founder and I are very pleased to have them as investment partners and can’t wait for how much we’ll achieve together.

It will be good though to see a local company that has fully integrated with its local market before moving into places like Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, and Cameroon. Sometimes these companies scale a bit too fast, especially internationally. Are they running when they can barely walk? Examples like DealDay and GoMyWay show that this might be true.
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Amazon calls cops, fires workers in attempts to stop unionization nationwide

Netflix
What are the limits to stopping unionisation in tech?

Amazon, it's safe to say doesn't have the playbook. For starters, it has lost one battle already, though it's still in court trying to overturn the verdict two months after.

But the company is now playing in what seems to be dangerous territory by calling the police on unionisation protesters who are also its staff.

Unionisation is the long tried and tested, successful way staff protect themselves in the workplace. This will no doubt be very useful in the tech industry that is still largely unhinged and unregulated in many developing countries like ours. What will unionisation look like for us as staff of the Nigerian tech space?

For one, we can stop bosses from raising their voices on staff and storming in and out of meetings as has been reported. But more so, it will give staff the huge, well-deserved power in the workplace. This is why I find it hard to make sense of why the drafters of the Nigerian Startup Bill didn't include that, after all, members of the board also include employees in the ecosystem and not just founders.

Why will you, why will anyone given the power not use it to protect themselves from the type of workplace misappropriation that we've seen in these reports? One can only wonder.
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Latest in funding

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Other stories we are following

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Have a great day!
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