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One of South Africa's quietest tech success stories is a seven-person business that's gone from startup to profitability in just four years – without ever marketing itself or taking a cent of outside financing. In the process, mobile social network 2go has come to dominate the Nigerian market, where it has over nine million active users – several million more than Facebook. The secret, says director Peter Lockhart, has been balancing a tight focus on what 2go's users really want – a cheap, easy way to chat and socialise using their mobile phones – with the deep technical expertise needed to deliver that experience across thousands of different devices. “Building mobile technology for an African market is tough,” says Lockhart. “Data and SMS are expensive, and our users are price sensitive and savvy. That means we have to deliver an application that uses the absolute minimum of system resources and bandwidth. Our response has been to develop proprietary communications p...

ObafemI Martins struck a dramatic late winner on his debut as Levante came from behind to defeat Real Sociedad 2-1 in the Primera Division. Martins only formalised his move to Levante on Friday after being allowed to leave Rubin Kazan, and repaid his new employers’ faith with a goal just 41 minutes after entering the action as a half-time substitute. David Zurutuza had earlier handed visiting Sociedad a first-half lead that they held until the 70th minute when Jose Barkero levelled from the penalty spot. With the clock ticking down Martins pounced inside the area to lift Levante to their second win of the season and a place inside the top 10. The hosts were hugely unlucky not to be in front when Barkero unleashed an effort from inside the area that cannoned back of the post. Sociedad threatened in the 18th minute when Carlos Vela curled an effort over from distance, and five minutes later the visitors were in front when Zurutuza picked up the ball on the edge of the area and pow...

Nigeria international Victor Moses is gradually playing himself into the heart of Chelsea given the post-match review of their last game by the Blues manager Roberto di Matteo. The Italian whose team is leading the English Premier League said that the performance of the attacker in the game against Stoke on Saturday has given him a huge consideration for a starting place on Tuesday in the League Cup match against Wolves. Di Matteo commented via Twitter, “Victor Moses played well again when he came on and has a good chance of starting v Wolves on Tuesday.” The Nigerian has not started for the Stamford Bridge team since his about £10m move from Wigan Athletic and also came up a substitute in their last match against Stoke City which they won by 1-0 courtesy of a late goal scored by defender Ashley Cole. Moses, a surprise by the reigning European champions did not feature in the team’s only Champions League match so far this season which was played at home against Juventus. Di Matteo ...

A suspected thief, Adewunmi Abdullahi, who tried to dispossess a photojournalist of The PUNCH of his belongings on Friday in Lagos, met his waterloo when he was ‘arrested’ by his victim and dragged to a police station. The photojournalist, Olatunji Obasa, said the suspected crook, connived with another young man to rob him on the pedestrian bridge at Oshodi around 8.30am. Obasa said he wanted to take photographs of an accident scene when he noticed two men attempting to snatch his belongings from him. He said, “I looked down from the bridge and saw an accident scene. But as I tried to take a shot, I felt a hand in my pocket. As I tried to check what was happening, I noticed that another hand was unlatching my bag. “Immediately, I gripped the hand in my pocket and shouted ‘thief, thief.’ The other man trying to unlatch my bag quickly fled. But I held on to the other one and hit him. As I did that, passers-by had gathered and helped to hold him.” Obasa said he dragged the young ma...

Does it make you angry? Does it rile you to see your country portrayed as poor and suffering and full of struggle? It burns you, does it not? To have some foreigner- who knows nothing of your history and pain, of the stories that flow within your blood- to have this foreigner come in and tell your story? Is it not the height of disrespect and insensitivity? Does it not chafe against the thick skin you have grown to cover your other wounds? Does it not make you angry? We should wax sanctimonious about national pride being slighted. We should vent our displeasure online. We should occupy something. Because God forbid the truth ever be told about what things really are. God forbid a stranger reminds us about those things we choose to ignore every day. God forbid we ever face the truth about ourselves. God forbid we do not go on the internet and rail about how our country is being cast in bad light. God forbid we do not talk about how there is a small minority which lives better than por...

The popular music talent show Nigerian Idol is back with its third season! The third season was was launched on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at a media event held in Lagos. Also, returning to Idols for another thrilling season are the judges; US singer-dancer, Jeffrey Daniels, veteran singer Yinka Davies, and Charly Boy. On Air Personality, Ill Rhymz also returns as this year’s host. Tiwa Savage, who co-hosted last year, is however, conspicuously missing in action. The Nigerian Idol show has also expanded its search cities from four to five; adding Owerri to the list. Other search cities are Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Benin. Auditions with start on October 13, 2012 in these five cities. The show will begin broadcast on cable and terrestrial TV on December 15, 2012. This year’s prize money is a whooping sum of N20m – a N7.5m recording contract, N7.5m cash prize and an SUV worth N5m. Past winners of the music reality show include Yeka Onka (season 1) and Mercy Chinwo ...

Prolific TV host Andre Blaze has opened up on why he left popular cable TV channel Nigezie where he worked for four years. ‘Expansion! It was time for me to grow‘, the young dark skinned presenter who started working at Nigezie from August 2008 told NET. Andre Blaze says he officially turned in his resignation in May 2012 but left in June. ‘It’s been an incredibly, the most educational experience‘, Andre Blaze reminisces on his stay at Nigezie. Before joining Nigezie, Blaze was head of programming at Rhythm FM 93.7, Port Harcourt. Andre Blaze was recently announced as the host of the first ever edition of ‘Nigeria’s Got Talent‘ show. He is however not new to hosting talent shows. ‘I’ve hosted shows like ‘Zain Nigeize True Search‘, ‘Battle of the Year‘, ‘Peak Talent Show‘, but this one looks even more impressive’, Blaze told NET.