

Silicon South Africa: Google Launches Incubator For African Startups - timlindinct
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/08/silicon-south-africa-google-launches-incubator-for-african-startups/

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jasonkester
Missed a word in the title: South Africa.

That changes things a lot. If it were in Kenya or Nigeria, this would be a
bold move. South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much
different to a middle of the road Western country.

As a result, this news is more on par with opening an incubator in New Zealand
or Italy. Certainly cool to hear, but not really "Startups in the Congo" cool.

~~~
Alex3917
"South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much different to a
middle of the road Western country."

How many western countries have 30% unemployment, roving gangs of looters, and
an average literacy level of 2nd/3rd grade?

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a54552
_roving gangs of looters_

I've live in South Africa my entire life, but have yet to encounter a "roving
gang of looters". Citation?

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Alex3917
From people in the country I've heard that there is often a lot of violence
that spills out of the slums around election time.

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Vmabuza
Thats BS.South Africa does have a high crime rate i agree but its not as
drastic as people make it out to be.

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Devilboy
You just say that because you've not lived in a country where you can walk the
streets alone safely at night.

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Vmabuza
7 years in KZN 5 years In Jozi the Rest in Mpumalanga. Yes you are right at
night safety levels drop but i think its like that in most developed countries
too.But what are you doing walking at night anyways boet? Alone nogal

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Devilboy
> i think its like that in most developed countries too.

See that's where you lack perspective. In safe countries (like here in
Australia) you can name any suburb in the country and I'll go for a stroll at
3am with no fear for my personal safety. Why? Maybe I was out drinking and I'm
catching a bus home.

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timlindinct
Having an incubator in South Africa is actually more noteworthy than if it
were "Startups in the Congo".

Here in South Africa, as other commenters pointed, we still don't have a
strong software industry, neither from the academic side, nor from the hacker
culture side.

However, in comparison to other African countries, we have a developed
infrastructure. We have fast broadband access (although only recently), and
access to current technology (smartphones etc), which is not as much the case
in north african countries. That means that the sort of startups could be on
the same global level, as opposed to targeting different (region specific)
problems or technology.

We also have strong universities that could become strong software
universities, given enough pressure.

One other significant difference that I've come to realize after lots of
thinking about it, is that South Africa is one of the very few countries in
the _world_ that is first language English...outside of America and England
(Australia would be the other). This obviously makes a huge difference in
terms of potential for first class membership in the same industry / network.
So to some degree we have had South Africa almost hiding away as an unattended
asset in this regard. This is probably acts as a large hurdle in European /
Asian / other African countries and puts SA in a different category.

Also noteworthy, is the fact that (as far as I know) this is Google first
proper incubator project anywhere in the world. Viewing this as part of
Google's "Africa Project", for all these reasons, would be looking at it from
completely the wrong point of view (IMO).

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abbasmehdi
This is awesome!!!! Calling SA just Africa is not cool in the title, the
economies of African countries vary as much as they do in the Americas
(almost).

This is wonderful news though!!!

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Untitled
Hmmmm...

The software industry in South Africa faces several problems. Probably the
first problem is that computer science teaching and research sucks. This is
not my opinion but based on research
([http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-
Innovate/Local%20sci...](http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-
Innovate/Local%20science%20needs%20a%20booster%20shot.pdf)) – the relative
citation index of computer science is at 0.57. Engineering is much higher (at
0.73).

This problem is compounded by the fact that the financial services industry
absorbs the most talented of those who study computer science.

Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting
is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. What is worse, internet
start-ups cannot use the only competitive advantage that S. Africa has –
fairly cheap unskilled labour (cheaper than developed countries, much more
expensive than China and India).

Personally, I think the local electronics industry will do better (with medium
scale production). Firstly, Engineering education is still a lot better than
computer science (thanks in part to international agreements such as the
Washington accord which ensures (some) independence of engineering councils
and keeps the government and political meddling to a minimum). Secondly, it is
not as affected by the problems (bandwidth) and can at least use some
advantages (cheaper skilled and unskilled labour).

I know of two electronics companies which recently gained quite big multi-year
contracts from large US companies.

In the long term I am pessimistic though – the quality of primary and
secondary education is falling (according to international rankings such as
TIMSS and other studies). This creates a problem feeding the universities. The
quality of research in universities is also under pressure and decreasing in
most technical fields (see linked articles and personal experience as a
lecturer). Unfortunately political considerations are before academic
excellence. The industrial economy relies on people qualified in technical
areas – and it will follow the downward trend.

[https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_St...](https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_State%282009%29.pdf)

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prr
> Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection.
> Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups.

Fun fact: AT&T played a large role in f###ing SA's internet up; with dodgy
political deals, lousy infrastructure support and horrific bandwidth caps.

[http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-
ATam...](http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-ATampT-
Pillaged-South-Africas-Economy)

[edit] Slashdot article link is dead, copy here:
<http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1090.html>

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ernestipark
Although this is for South Africa, Google is really taking initiative in
Africa in general. I was part of an MIT student group that Google funds every
year to go to different African countries/universities to teach a mobile
programming/entrepreneurship course. I went to Rwanda last year and the
experience was fantastic. The end of the class culminates in a business plan
competition using the technologies and business ideas they have learned with
the winners receiving healthy cash prizes to jump start their businesses. It
is a pretty amazing program that has seen the birth of lots of successful
companies. It's no surprise to me that Google is investing more into Africa.

Edit: Nokia also funds the program.

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mdpm
I am applying, but I do have a few small points:

\- As seed capital goes, that's not going to get very far. It is, however,
great that other aspects will be supported.

\- Given the failure rate, likely worse than international par - that's not
really enough ideas being sponsored to see many graduate.

\- There are other incubators here, offering similar services (however, not
Google's name as a sponsor, nor generally the capital)

\- Competing internationally from .za will be hard. Perhaps prohibitively so.
Ideas with primarily local applicability will be more likely to succeed, which
means ...

\- You should really be developing (and selling) a _business_, not an
application.

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zoul
I'd certainly be more happy to see investors pouring $40M into some local
African project than into Color. (Though it won't happen, as they offer
$20—50K.)

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Vmabuza
I doubt you need that much($40 mill) funding in SA. Look at Mxit for example
do you think they need that much? What SA needs is younger people getting in
on The Techscene instead of finding safe jobs at the Banks,Lawfirms and
accountancy Firms.

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Sapient
As a South African, this is really awesome news!

There is however a far bigger problem than just funding here, I have never
even heard of the Twangoo (Acquired by Groupon) mentioned in the article. I
suppose its down to the almost total lack of any sort of hacker/startup
community, and I don't know how that is going to be fixed.

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Fritzinger
I'm surprised you missed Twangoo. Facebook, Megavideo and my friends all
blasted it at me. It's a popular site in SA.

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Vmabuza
I doubt Twangoo will be around in SA for more than 2 years.Group buying will
never catch in SA until there is one online payment system that EVERYBODY uses
as well confidence in eCommerce.

PS I read an article on mybroadband about false pricing by businesses on
Twangoo.I feel that things like this will hinder the growth of the group
buying model in SA.

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Sapient
I agree with regard to the payment gateway, but its been a very long time
since I met someone who said they wouldn't use eCommerce. Most people I know
do a lot of online shopping, and I am not talking about my tech friends.

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Vmabuza
Im fresh out of Varsity(UJ) and i have done surveys (informal) at varsity ,all
the people i have surveyed (black,coloured and indian) have never bought a
single thing online.I ask them why and they tell me ''We dont have credit
cards'',i then tell them ''but you can use bank deposits '' they still wont
budge.Now if these groups of people who make up majority of the population and
aslo the group with the largest buying power(Gen Y) are not buying online;this
means that eCommerce in SA has a long way to go.

I personal don't even regard our eCommerce Market as having begun yet.But i do
shop online now and then. Im also working on a couple of projects and startups
to address the confidence issues that the majority and youth have about the
internet.

PS Iam a black Attorney lol

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Sapient
All true... But how many of them even have access to the internet, let alone
credit cards?

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Vmabuza
One word OperaMini. That would be +- 11million. As for credit cards forget
that people dont need those to buy online.Bank Deposits work. Just like New
Zealand and China. I dont own a credit card but i buy alot from the Prophecy
and Sybaritic I also got Paypal linked with my FNB. Moral of the story lets
stop with the Telkom and Creditcard excuses and start building shit relevant
to the Whole of SA.

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Apocryphon
Has any group done a similar thing to promote Indian startups? Sounds like a
more sustainable and helpful thing in the long run. Give a man a job in your
company, and he'll work for you for the rest of a life. Teach a man to build
his own company, and he'll work for himself.

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john2x
I can't wait till something similar happens in our country. This is pretty
cool.

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Apocryphon
Google ought to also fund startups in Chile, Italy, and Australia. Lock down
every single Mediterranean climate in the world.

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a54552
Your point is flippant, but you do make an interesting point. There is huge
demand for skilled programmers in South Africa, and very few skilled
graduates. Most are employed in Johannesburg, and the majority are snapped up
by the financial industry, as someone else pointed out in this thread.
Convincing them to consider Cape Town will be difficult. Apart from UCT
graduates, it will be interesting to see who else they manage to attract.

Cape Town is a great city (and the best run municipality in the country), but
it lacks the dynamism of Johannesburg. I have to wonder if "tourist"
considerations, rather than serious business thinking drove the decision to
put the incubator in Cape Town.

