Standard Bank has rolled out what it claims is the world's first bank card to include both NFC and debit card functionality. The so-called Muvo card was developed in partnership with the South African bank's business development centre and innovation incubator Beyond Payments. The debit card functionality will come from Mastercard, which has given the card the go-ahead. Beyond Payments claims the dual-function card “is believed to be a world first in the realm of cashless payment technology.” The product was ...

A 13-year-old girl has been raped by a 45-year-old man she allegedly met on Twitter. The young girl had reportedly skipped school to meet up with the accused at her parents home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria, South Africa. "When the girl opened the door, she realised that the man was a lot older than he had pretended to be online", police spokesperson Captain Marissa van der Merwe told the Beeld newspaper. The girl then tried to close the ...

Pinterest is about to get a massive cash boost as it looks to expand its international presence. Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten announced that it would be investing US$100-million into the current belle of the social media ball. In a press release, Rakuten said it would partner with Pinterest in growing the social network in 17 of the markets it is most active in. Pinterest co-founder and CEO Ben Siberman said that teaming up with the ecommerce giant would help it ...

This is hilarious, if a little unfairly stereotypical. A French sex store is offering a free um...toy to any women who feel their boyfriends have abandoned them since the release of Diablo III. The marketing bumpf is especially great once you run it through Google translate: Your man has not left his computer since the release yesterday of Diablo III? Still a long time before you find yourself in his arms during a romantic evening ... You yearn ... You feel abandoned ...

Sorry what's that Bing? Oh you integrated social with search? Very cute. Now let the big boys show you how it's really done. Google today announced a new search model that it claims "understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another" The internet giant calls the new model "The Knowledge Graph" and says that it is built on the premise that when we're searching we're looking for "things not strings". In order to understand what it means by this, let's ...

Samsung is winning the mobile wars and at the same time helping Android kill in the mobile OS stakes. Thing is all of the players in the game of phones are competing for a smaller market. According to research company Gartner, some 419.1-million mobile phones sold in the first few months of 2012, two percent less than the same period in 2011. That’s more significant than it might seem. It’s the first time the market has gone into decline since ...

A price war has erupted among South Africa’s mobile operators, as each seeks to increase its slice of the pie in a country where there are nearly as many active SIM cards as there are people. The country’s third mobile operator Cell C recently slashed its data prices, halving them in some cases. It’s followed up this move with a new voice deal for its prepaid customers. South Africa’s first-and-largest operator Vodacom today responded with what it calls the “Freedom ...

Facebook ads don’t work, not even a little bit. Well that’s if auto giant General Motors (GM) is to be believed at any rate. The company, which spends around US$40-million a year on Facebook campaigns, says it is pulling the US$10-million it currently spends on paid-for Facebook ads. GM’s marketing chief Joel Ewanick told the Wall Street Journal that the company still views putting up relevant content about its products on the social network as an “effective and important” part ...

Having spent some time participating on most of the popular social networks from a B2B social media marketing perspective, I have listed a number of things you can do to ensure your social media efforts fail dismally. Commit these cardinal sins and some of the scenes from Dante's Inferno will seem like a picnic by comparison. 1. No “buy-in” from the entire organisation Social media is not a one man band. It is something that involves your whole organisation. Your community ...

Jane Austen was a big fan of an advantageous marriage, and so it seems, is Facebook. One's changes in relationship status are the most prominent feature on the Timeline after being born, and of course, joining Facebook. Facebook has even designed little icons for these events; I recently saw a friends’ engagement announced with a little blue ring and a neat date underneath. Is meeting the right person such a notable achievement? Irritated singletons might wonder why all the Timeline ...