

Apple Acquires Nigerian Tech Entrepreneur's Startup HopStop - jkuria
http://www.cp-africa.com/2013/07/20/apple-hopstop-com/

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norswap
I thought it was an Nigerian startup, but it's just that the entrepreneur is
Nigerian. Somehow that feels less newsworthy.

~~~
jkuria
Why? TechCrunch publishes stories every day about US companies acquiring US
companies. These stories are newsworthy. But if an entrepreneur who happens to
have been born in Nigeria sells his company to Apple it is not newsworthy? Did
he have to be living on a tree and subsisting on wild fruits and nuts in the
Niger Delta swamps for it to be newsworthy?

~~~
norswap
What tptacek, rdouble and james_madison said is accurate.

Also I don't consider most acquisitions all that interesting, but I would have
been interested in reading about the Nigerian startup scene (if there is such
a scene).

~~~
rdouble
_What tptacek, rdouble and james_madison said is accurate._

Hmm? I love being accurate but I didn't post anything to this thread.

~~~
Hovertruck
Strangely enough, neither did the other two...

~~~
fixxer
They were thinking it.

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yulaow
... and Immediately Drops Windows Phone Support

[http://www.windowsobserver.com/2013/07/19/apple-buys-
hopstop...](http://www.windowsobserver.com/2013/07/19/apple-buys-hopstop-and-
immediately-drops-windows-phone-support/)

------
jkuria
Shameless plug: For more stories like these check out
[http://AfriTech.com](http://AfriTech.com)

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skc
Bittersweet for me. I love hearing good news in the tech space out of Africa.
Yay!. But then as a Windows Phone fan, I see that with this announcement
they've promptly canned their support for the platform. Boo!

~~~
mkr-hn
Maybe they were looking forward to Halo before Microsoft bought Bungie.

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ianterrell
Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dRw4c11...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dRw4c11baCMJ:www.cp-
africa.com/2013/07/20/apple-hopstop-com/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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scrnzilla
Very proud to hear this. Now the world can hear good news about Nigeria beyond
internet scams

~~~
smtddr
Same here. Amazed this made it to HN front page.

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OoTheNigerian
This is a very news worthy story irrespective of the founder's origin. The
founder being Nigerian makes it much more newsworthy. We all know what
Nigeria's reputation is like on this thread.

Irrespective of what people would want to agree with, there is pattern
matching going on. It is not exclusive to this thread or HN. See other blogs
and the absence of comments. If it was a randon former Stanford grad and ex-
Facebook employeee, he would have been a toast of the US tech world and
definitely the HN thread. If it were a post about deciphering the motivation
or techniques of scammers, everyone will have an opinion.

This is not the first time I am seeing this here and on the tech circuit. When
a Nigeria company BASED in Nigeria raised $8 million, the tech newswire and HN
was quiet. Do any of you remember this story?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3810466](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3810466)

It is nobody's fault or responsibility so I cannot or will not apportion
blame. It is just how things are. It is only a reminder.

I am proud of Chinedu not only because he we attended the same High School
with me, but that he surmounted the odds and has had a massive successful and
useful exit. Hopefully, he will serve as an inspiration and motivate more
Nigerians/ Africans to tackle problems on a gbobal scale.

PS: I actually mentioned him 3 years ago when I wrote about the dearth of
black founders of globally renowned startups.
[http://oonwoye.com/2010/04/05/black-
founders/](http://oonwoye.com/2010/04/05/black-founders/)

~~~
antninja
We don't hear a lot about non-American startups in general. Or even those
outside SF and maybe NY. It's the ecosystem effect.

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kh_hk
What's interesting here is that there's value in providing better solutions
than the official ones.

Every transit system on HopStop has its official site, with its (usually
crappy) website. I assume most of the info in HopStop is either scraped or
consumed through undocumented APIs.

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kennywinker
Good! Transit directions coming to Apple Maps. That's great news for bus-
takers everywhere.

~~~
falcolas
Well, bus-takers who use iPhones at least.

~~~
sshumaker
And who haven't already switched to Google Maps...

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seivan
Nigeria could probably use more Engineers and less MBA's. I just hope it
doesn't twists the local populations mind into thinking that MBA degrees are
useful.

~~~
yardie
Plenty of engineers there but most work in petroleum. I do get what you are
saying.

