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What’s So Different About China’s Mobile Payments’ Ecosystem
There’s plenty of differences between the mobile commerce market in the U.S. and the mobile ecosystem seen in China.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Choice Exists, Even in Slums: How a Yelp-like model can benefit low-income communities
The founder and CEO of TulaLens says a recent pilot project shows that choice exists in urban low-income settings, and crowdsourcing information can potentially be a powerful tool in these communities. The next issue for TulaLens is how to expand its reach.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Where Cellular Networks Don’t Exist, People Are Building Their Own
Inside the cloud that is perpetually draped over the small town of San Juan Yaee, Oaxaca, Raúl Hernández Santiago crouches down on the roof of the town hall and starts drilling. Men wearing rain gear of various impermeabilities cluster above him, holding a 4-meter-tall tower in place. Braided wires trail from four small circles welded near its midpoint; eventually those will be bolted or tied down in order to hold the tower steady during the frequent storms that roll through this part of Mexico’s Sierra de Juárez mountains. They don’t want it falling over every time it rains. Ninety thousand of the town’s pesos—a bit over $6,000—are invested in the equipment lashed to the top of the tower, in a town where many residents get by on subsistence agriculture.
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- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Three NGOs Fighting Tuberculosis with Mobile Tech
Tuberculosis kills over a million people each year, mostly in developing countries, where poor public health systems hamper efforts to diagnose and treat it. But NGOs are now embracing new mobile health technologies that could help fight the disease more efficiently and cost-effectively.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Technology and Garbage Dreams in the Silicon Valley of India
The Indian city of Bangalore is home to more than 15,000 waste pickers — overall, India houses 1.5 million waste pickers. They earn their daily living by sifting through the city’s 4,000 tons of solid waste for recyclables they can sell for payment.
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- Technology
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- South Asia
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- impact investing
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E-Wallets catching on in India
In a rush to board a train in time, Shivani Bhargava, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from Mumbai, ends up in a tight spot after she forgets her wallet at home. After getting down at the station in Delhi, she has to book a cab and reach her hostel at the earliest, but doesn’t have the cash or cards to do so. Enter Meru Cabs’ ‘cab wallet’. All she does is tap her mobile app and, voila, the payment is made. “Not only did I reach my hostel safely, but I also got a 30% discount,” says Bhargava.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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What Alibaba Is Getting With Its $575 Million Investment In Paytm
Alibaba Group and its financial-services affiliate Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group’s planned $575 million investment in the online-payment and marketplace businesses of India’s One97 Communications called Paytm will be the Chinese company’s first major investment in India’s fast-growing e-commerce industry. A deal between the two companies will open the floodgates for large amount of cross-border trade between India and China. Here’s what you need to know about Paytm.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Drones’ New Mission: Saving Lives in Developing Countries
They still aren’t delivering Amazon packages. But in Haiti, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, drones have helped rescue natural disaster victims – and transport medical samples and supplies.
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- Health Care, Technology