Communiqué

This week on Communiqué Digest: 1. French telecom company Orange has partnered with OpenAI and Meta to train AI models on African languages. The project will start with two languages: Wolof and Pulaar. 2. The Basketball Africa League moves to Morocco, kicking off its fifth season in Morocco in April 2025. 3. Alyssa Sheil, an Amazon influencer, is suing another influencer for stealing her vibe. This suit might change the industry forever. 4. Feyikemi FK Abudu, of I Said What I Said, and Steven Ndukwu discuss the business of content creation, on Founders Connect Live. 5. Prominent designer, Oluseyi Olusanya, shares how he built one of Africa’s most prominent design agencies. Discover these stories and more, below. #communiquedigest #creatoreconomy #africanmedia https://lnkd.in/dvYUBaEe

Things we love to see! 👏 👏

Two of the world's most dominant financial data companies, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, have influential, well-respected consumer-facing businesses that dominate the media landscape. From inception, we embraced this business model and built a high-quality consumer product first. The results were far more influential than we could have anticipated. But, as a startup, we had to decide to avoid boiling the ocean and focus exclusively on our business product. Stears' goal is to reach the right scale and depth to allow us to redefine the information ecosystem for businesses. However, this article from Communiqué reminds me of the gap we left behind and how important it is for us to build as quickly as we can and (possibly) return to the consumer market. In the meantime, our Open Data efforts, led by the amazing Hannah Kates, will ensure we do our best to support making high-quality information on Africa available to non-professionals.

"One of the defining qualities behind Stears’ success was its commitment to subject-matter expertise. Unlike traditional media companies, Stears employed professional economists rather than journalists as its primary writers... This approach gave the company a critical advantage: the ability to not only gather data but also interpret and contextualize it at a high level. "However, as Stears has shifted focus, very little of what it used to do exists in the market anymore. But whether or not anyone can or will fill the gap is a question of worth and incentives." All new Communiqué by Oritsejolomi Otomewo and me. Read and subscribe!

When Stears shifted focus to enterprise, it left behind more than a consumer-facing platform – it left a void in high-quality data and analysis for Africa. In this week’s Communiqué newsletter, we look at the following: 1. The rise and pivot of Stears. 2. What made them exceptional – and hard to replicate. 3. Opportunities for new players to step in. Dive into the challenges, rewards, and what it takes to fill this gap. Read the full newsletter on Substack. The link is below, in the comment section.

We are launching a second newsletter offering at CMQ Media (Communiqué). Already, Communiqué does a very good job of providing longform, data-driven narrative essays. But we have spotted another gap in the market — a "coffee break" newsletter that curates important stories and provides perspective on the creative economy. Most of the existing options out there are very U.S.-centric. We, as always, will focus on Africa, with a global lens. More about that here.

We’re thrilled to introduce Communiqué Digest—a bi-monthly newsletter delivering the most captivating and impactful stories from Africa’s creative economy straight to your inbox! Every second and last Friday of the month, we will be sharing timely, relevant and insightful updates with you via the newsletter. Hit the link in the comment section and subscribe today to be in the know! #CommuniquéDigest #CreativeEconomy

The latest edition of Communiqué is here. In this essay, Oritsejolomi Otomewo and I examine the trajectory of fintech and how it has grown to become one of the most important industries in Africa. From powering creative projects and financing films, to building payment infrastructure and developing global talent, fintech’s impact has been far-reaching. We tell this story by taking some inspiration from the American railway system in the mid-1800s, examining the inflow of sponsorship dollars to the continent's biggest reality TV shows, and the celebrity endorsement boom of 2022. Please read, share, and let us know your thoughts. What do you think about fintech's rise in Africa?

How does Fintech drive Africa forward? For context-based insights, read this week's free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dmaAuKs8 #communiqué #fintech #africa