Big dreams {{ FIRSTNAME }}? Joburg entrepreneur and dad Alex Torrão is spending weekends racing to raise funds and qualify to realise the childhood dream of racing in the Dakar — check out the #Dad2Dakar campaign on Insta. Les go!
In This Open Letter
Expensive Lessons: What really happened to Showmax.
Local: Groceries for less, WhatsApp eWallets & new stars.
Global: How much money do vibe-coding platforms make?
Tech Jobs: Machine learning, platform engineering & more.
Better Business: Do you really even need a co-founder?
Joburg, are you ready?
The Open Letter is coming to town on 16 April 2026 with heavy FinTech and AI hitters like Shola Akinlade, Cofounder and CEO of Paystack, Emmaniel Lubanzadio, Africa Lead @ OpenAI, and Archana Arakkal, Head of AI @ Araxi — the company that recently acquired Pay@ for R1bn.
Tickets sell out fast, so don’t miss out.
TRENDING NOW
How Showmax Went From African Leader to Double Trading Losses in 24 Months
Showmax beat Netflix in Africa, only to be floored by rented tech – laying SA’s streaming game wide open again…
The Canal+ takeover of MultiChoice was an epic long-game of corporate Monopoly.
It started with a sneaky lil 6.5% stake in 2020, reached the mandatory 35% offer threshold in early 2024, and by October 2025, Canal+ hit the 94% stake mark, triggering a compulsory acquisition.
Speculations on the future of SuperSport and DStv ran rife, but Showmax was first to go.
How to play yourself out of the game
That’s wild, considering Showmax effectively beat Netflix to Africa with 2.1 million subs (November 2023) to Netflix’s 1.8 million.
The problem? Showmax had a R1.2 billion trading loss in 2023, but positive paid subscriber growth of 26%. They looked on their way, but their proprietary streaming tech couldn’t scale with Premier League viewership numbers, wasn’t very search-friendly and couldn’t handle new 4K/HDR formats.
We didn’t pay attention at the time, but throughout 2024, MultiChoice said multiple times to the media and in their results that SA didn’t have the engineers to maintain a world-class platform for them.
Whatever you do, don’t tell them that SA has the most software engineers in Africa (or that those overseas companies hire SA engineers to build their platforms).
That’s why MultiChoice relaunched Showmax in 2024 after a deal with the US’s Comcast (NBCUniversal’s parent company) to use their Peacock technology platform under the hood.
The expensive lesson
Shortly after, MultiChoice learned firsthand what The Open Letter readers already knew back in 2023, when we showed the dangers of global cloud computing trends and again in 2024, when we showed how cloud costs spiral out of control when you scale.
Yes, renting that shiny international tech would cost MultiChoice nearly R7 billion in platform fees alone over 7 years, effectively doubling their losses and devouring R650 for every R99 Showmax sub, dragging down the whole group’s trading profits.
In 2025, Canal+ Group generated 2.6x the revenue (~R125bn) of MultiChoice (~R47bn) and triple the operating profit (~R10.8bn to R3.1bn) with just double the subscriber count (28 mil to 14.4 mil). And there goes Showmax.
All dressed up with nowhere to go
Their departure leaves some local content orphans: Showmax Originals, The Wife, Adulting and Tracking Thabo Bester might not make it onto Canal+'s own streaming service.
Netflix still does SA content, but Amazon Prime cut local originals, and Disney+ and Apple TV remain niche observers.
In terms of local platforms:
But how will these compete against the learned behaviour of all your shows for R99 a month? The SA streaming game seems wide open again.
We’re watching this space…
Have your say…
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IN SHORT
Easing you into the weekend…
🛒 Give Em The Goods. Local startup Still Good just launched The Goods Marketplace for specific items from distributors at discounts of up to 65%.
📱 FNB’s eWhatsApp Wallet. FNB customers can now create an eWallet via WhatsApp by sending Hi to 087 392 5538, in a move to create a simpler digital entry point into banking. Very cool.
💁 No Fuss. Just Vibes. No-code, AI-powered dev platform Lovable just crossed the $400 million ARR mark, with $100 million being added in February 2026 alone, looking set to hit $1 billion ARR by the end of the year. Goodness.
🔭 Now You See It. Astronomers from UCT uncovered one of the largest hidden structures in the nearby universe. SA’s MeerKAT and SALT telescopes helped discover the hidden Vela Supercluster of galaxies, 800 million light-years from Earth.
🏆 Global Scale Enabled. Deel Local Payroll (formerly PaySpace) had the product but needed to scale globally. So SA cloud scaling specialist Cloud on Demand simplified the Azure migration and GTM for faster launches, stronger performance and steady inbound leads.*
* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.
WHAT YOU SAID
Braai time…
Yesterday, we showed you Bio Bean’s Charffee braai logs, asking about the best use of your used coffee grounds. Most use it in the garden…
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗑️ Goes straight in the bin (16%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 I like this fuel for my fire thing (28%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧴 I make a very nice exfoliating skin scrub (2%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐛 I sprinkle it in my garden to ward off the local pestilence (47%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧉 I don't drink coffee (7%)
Your 2 cents…
“Our church in Pretoria makes the used coffee grounds available at the morning service. All neatly packed in paper packets. It's great to see efforts to reuse and recycle.”
Ag, awesome, Nita. And now you can braai with them, too! ☕
READY FOR A MOVE?
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BEYOND THE NEWSLETTER
Do you really need a co-founder?
We asked a founder of one of SA’s hottest current ventures how important having co-founders is when building a business — the answer is 🥇…
Don’t miss all the extra operator interviews and insights content we do on our social channels — come enjoy the vibez.
AROUND THE WEB
Have some fun…
🅿️ Tool to Try: Curb is a community-powered network to find and share parking spots.
🚄 That’s Interesting: In 2025, China accelerated a maglev test vehicle from 0 to 700 km/h in just 2 seconds.
⚡ Next Level: This is what it looks like travelling at 700 km/h.
🧵 Hack: A visual guide to different types of textile weaves.
🌐 Wow Site: Web Rewind is an interactive web history timeline.
