CNN Marketplace Africa: Social and digital media in Sou Africa

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CNN Marketplace Africa: Social and digital media in South Africa --

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 10:11

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CNN Marketplace Africa examines the expansion of social networks across South Africa and their role in news consumption.

With more than 21 million South Africans using Twitter and Facebook, the programme investigates how online news sites are utilising these networks to promote their content.

Arthur Goldstruck, CEO of World Wide Worx, outlines the increased important role that Facebook, which has 14 million active users in South Africa, plays in news consumption: Facebook has caught up to Twitter as a primary source of breaking news Around 55 percent of Facebook users in South Africa are using it to consume news.

The programme finds that increasingly, news sites are also relying on Facebook to promote their content. This includes The Huffington Post, which launched in South Africa in November 2016.

CNN Marketplace Africa>/em> speaks to Jared Grusd, the CEO of the news site, who describes the benefit of expanding into new markets for The Huffington Post: This would be our 17th market that weve expanded to around the world Weve already reached 200 million people on a global basis and our footprint on social media is even bigger, reaching as many as a billion video viewers each month.

Since Facebook also opened offices in South Africa in 2015, there has been a highly competitive market to promote content across the social network.

Verashni Pillay, the editor-in-chief at Huffington Post South Africa, explains the process to CNN: Its a very important platform for us and it s also very important to work with Facebook because they change their algorithms all the time. It s important to be up to date with what theyre doing and how you can effectively reach your users and to boost readers to your own site.

As The Huffington Post continues to expand in South Africa, Pillay explains how the publication is also publishing stories in local languages, telling the programme: We are the first people to be doing that. English and Afrikaans dominate, but we need to care for South African and African languages.

In the same programme, host Eleni Giokos sits down with Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Speaking following the launch of her new health and wellness website Thrive Global, which hopes to combat stress in the workplace, Huffington explains the approach her company is taking: Stress and burnout have become truly global pandemics affecting everything Yet there is a better way that is so obvious and that is scientifically proven, because when we take care of ourselves, we are actually more effective, more productive.

Drawing on the theme of productivity, Giokos asks whether corporations will soon advocate and offer specific working hours for employees.

Huffington tells Giokos: I think theres a whole new understanding among many corporations that when they prioritise the well-being of their employees, when they make it clear that no human being can be on all the time gathered to our devices and perform the next day. But a lot of companies are actually making it clear that employees need to have real time to recharge uninterrupted with the demands of work.

Examining the impact of these initiatives, such as employees detaching from their electrical devices, Huffington explains why she believes wellness in the workplace is about to go global to CNN: The truth is that when you dont have enough time to recharge, your immune system is suppressed, youre more likely to catch colds, the flu or much worse and youre not as engaged or productive at work. In fact, we have the gala poll results that only 13 percent of the labour force globally is engaged at work Being at work and not being engaged, its nothing. Its not about the number of hours you spend at your desk. Its about how productive and present and engaged you are when you are there.

Looking to the future of Thrive Global and with a first funding evaluation of $53 million, Giokos asks Huffington on the future growth of the company and whether she hopes to create a new empire.

Huffington responds, telling Marketplace Africa : Well, the company is called Thrive Global for a reason. Because were basically launching from the beginning across multiple countries. We believe that this pandemic of burnout is a global problem. The solutions are global. And in every country we go to, we want to tap into the wisdom and best traditions of that country.

CNN Marketplace Africa airs Saturday 21 January at 18h15 SAST on CNN International

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