“Through the competition MTN is actively supporting start-ups in Cyprus,” MTN said in a statement.
This is the second year that MTN has initiated the Innovation Challenge, which was launched on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) on May 17, 2015.
In 2014, 50 teams applied and 20 teams reached the first stage of the valuation.
MTN awarded the best three teams €5,000 while the winner, Erato Aristotelous, won the grand prize of €25,000 for her Talktokkie proposal.
Talktokkie is a voice blogging social messaging platform.
MTN has opened its platform to the technology community in Cyprus, so that it can “provide the skills, expertise, experience, network and services to domestic innovative start-ups that want to distinguish themselves,” said the statement.
One step ahead
MTN, which was the first to enter the mobile market when it was liberalised, prides itself on being one step ahead of its rivals. For example,it launched 4G in March, leaving state-owned CYTA scrambling to catch up.
MTN was also the first Cypriot company to provide cloud computing services, as early as 2007.
At the end of April it acquired Intelligent Business Solutions (IBS). The acquisition of IBS will see MTN expand beyond the traditional mobile phone market, allowing the company to offer hardware servers, cloud services, consulting, as well as audit and information security services to its business clients.
This is in line with MTN Group’s “vision to lead the delivery of a bold, new Digital World”.
Market share of 38%
MTN is the second largest mobile operator in Cyprus, with 337,000 subscribers and a market share of 38% according to the MTN Group’s financial reports.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) in Cyprus is the highest in the group, at US$21.99 (€17.7) in the last quarter of 2014.
Total revenue for Cyprus was reported at 685 million South African rand (ZAR), or around €52.2 million.
Globally the South African-based group has 223.4 million subscribers and is a major operator in the continent.
In 2015 it expects to add 3,250 subscribers in the regional group of which Cyprus is a part.
After-tax profit for the group rose by 22.2% to ZAR 37.7 billion (€2.9 billion) in 2014, up from ZAR 30.9bn in 2013.
Source: InCyprus
