Digital Economy

An economically demanding and foreign-dominated digital market, along with a lack of political will and trust, make it harder for local digital entrepreneurs to succeed in DR Congo.

While mainstream social media platforms are deliberately filtering core values in weighted proportions, this article proposes a blockchain-based token economy to safeguard the core values of communities in a bottom-up manner. 

As social media platforms proficiently feed users with self-affirming posts and pleasant experiences, the adverse effect is that people get trapped in their mental comfort zones, losing touch with different communities and alternative viewpoints. 

In recent decades the internet has transformed how people share knowledge, but the web has also diverted from its early promise of democratisation. Currently, rewards mainly go to media platforms instead of original content creators, leading to market distortion and frustrated expectations. 

This article series explores possible alternatives to the internet’s current mechanisms and practices in content curation.

The global pandemic became a linchpin for many health-tech startup companies that were struggling to find their purpose. In 2020, the industry saw record funding and attention – and the need to balance investor’s expectations with public health concerns.

As the economic recession continues, more people are working for delivery apps, flooding the market and lowering the quality of service. 

From rural live-streaming to coordinating medical care, technology platforms in China have taken on a central role during the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic accelerated trends that further cement these companies as key infrastructure providers working in close tandem with the state – but this cozy relationship comes at a cost to many.

Covid-19 has accelerated innovation in the Nigerian health tech sector, providing opportunities for growth in an industry that has typically lacked investment, government endorsement, and attention.

Covid-19 has become a moment of opportunism for Indian e-commerce companies to consolidate their market power, insert themselves into local supply chains and co-opt neighborhood stores. Policy interventions are urgently needed to preserve the autonomy of the traditional retail sector and prevent Big Tech’s takeover of local economies.