After the tumultuous student protests which rocked South African universities, parliament, and the Union Buildings last week, the past few days have seemed pretty quiet. But the protests clearly resonated with Memeburn readers, as did Mxit’s announcement that it would be shutting down commercial operations and donating its IP to the Reach Trust.
In amidst all that, you also found value in the experiences of a Singularity University alumnus.
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These were the most read Memeburn articles of the past seven days:
5. Mxit shuts up shop, donates IP to charity
Mxit on Friday confirmed that it would shutting down its commercial operations to focus on Reach, its charitable arm. CEO Francois Swart is meanwhile set to depart the company he has been in charge of since the departure of Alan Knott-Craig Jr in 2012.
In its statment, the company also confirmed that while its app will still be available for download, the majority of its 30 or so remaining staff would be transferred to Reach — its charitable arm. Read more…
4. Heunis: Mxit could have been a ‘major success’ story, but I was burnt out
Mxit founder Herman Heunis on Tuesday took to Twitter to express regret that he “was so burntout[sic]” when he made the decision to sell Mxit to World of Avatar in 2011.
At that time Mxit, a quasi IM and social network platform, was putting numbers into the market allowing it to make claims that it was Africa’s largest social network, with bigger numbers than both Twitter and Facebook combined on the continent. Read more…
3. Singularity University and the exponential technologies changing our world
In their book Bold, co-authors Peter Diamandis and Stephen Kotler, highlight the exponential technologies poised to disrupt many of the world’s established industries and companies. These technologies include: networks and sensors, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics, genomes and synthetic biology and Blockchain, and are detailed below. Read more…
2. Mxit: how did Alan Knott-Craig Jr’s R500m bet go so badly wrong?
Mxit as we know it is dead. The company announced on Friday that it had shut down its commercial operations and would be transferring its IP to the Reach Trust, its charitable arm. The news had an air of inevitability about it — we predicted that this would be the direction Mxit would take back in February — but it’s a far cry from the hype that surrounded the company just four years ago when Alan Knott-Craig Jr acquired it from Naspers and founder Herman Heunis in a deal rumoured to be worth around R500-million. Read more…
1. 29 incredible photos from the #FeesMustFall march on the Union Buildings [Update]
On Friday, the #FeesMustFall movement saw its largest instance of mass action yet wit tens of thousands of protester gathering in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The gathering is the culmination of more than a week’s worth of protests which have rocked university campuses across the country, as well as the parliamentary precinct in Cape Town. Read more…
