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Showing posts from February 25, 2016

130m active mobile money users recorded globally in 2015

While the ongoing 2016 Mobile World Congress , MWC, is in full swing in Barcelona, Spain, the GSMA yesterday announced that the number of active mobile money accounts worldwide now exceeded 130 million, with more than 100 million new registered users added in 2015. According to the latest report on the state of financial services worldwide, there were 1 billion mobile money transactions in December 2015 at around 33 million per day which is more than double the amount PayPal processed globally. With 411 million registered mobile money users during the time in question, according the GSMA report, there were at least 19 countries with more mobile oney accounts than bank accounts According the report, with 30 services with more than 1 million active users, only 5 of those services actually have more than 5 million active users. The report also added that there were 271 active services in 93 countries. The figure the report said is more than the number of officially recog...

Google funds 128 news projects in Europe

Google announced Wednesday it would provide 27 million euros ($29.7 million) to 128 news organisations in Europe as part of its “Digital News Initiative.” Agence France-Presse is one of the organisations selected, for its platform of interactive graphics developed for users of AFP web and mobile media formats around the world. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai announced the latest funding in a speech in Paris. Google, which has been reorganised as a unit of the holding company Alphabet, had previously announced it was setting aside 150 million euros to help European news outfits in new projects that help them adapt to the digital landscape. “We are committed to ongoing discussion between the tech and news sectors,” Pichai said in his remarks at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po. “To promote innovation in digital journalism. And play our part in building a more sustainable news ecosystem.” The funds offered by Google aim to “stimul...