#StartupStory: Go live with Send it – SA’s live streaming platform

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Article by Evan-Lee Courie on BizCommunity

How we interact with one another and the events that we attend have changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We’re not going to be gathering together in person anytime soon. Fortunately, technology has played an indispensable role in connecting people and allowing many businesses to pivot their operations to offer their services and products online.

To support industries that have been negatively affected by South Africa’s lockdown, a new, easy-to-use and proudly South African online video streaming platform, Send it, has recently launched and is currently free to use.

The platform allows users to create and schedule live video streaming events. These events, such as cooking classes, concerts or online theatre, can be offered to audiences for free or at a cost.

“We want to help creators generate income during these uncertain times,” explains Brandon Muller, co-founder of Send it. “We’re aware of the devastating financial impact that Covid-19 has had on many industries, particularly those in events,” he adds.

Brandon Muller and James Coetzee, both serial entrepreneurs, have been involved in the eventing space for over eight years. They founded an internet solution company, Quick Connect Wireless, in 2012.

Brandon Muller
James Coetzee

The co-founders of Send it share more about the platform.

BizcommunityCan you tell us a bit about Send it?

Send it is a locally built, end-to-end live video platform; a tool for content creators to deliver free or paid-for-access streams to their audiences. Send it is also a service provider to corporates needing white-labelled live video delivery or video conferencing that can be reverse billed on all SA telco networks.

BizcommunityWhat sparked the idea and when did you get started?

We’ve been in the eventing industry for about eight years, delivering high capacity Wi-Fi networks. In doing that, we’ve done a lot of live streaming and came to learn of the shortcomings and pitfalls of other platforms in the space.

When Covid-19 hit, it gave us some nice breathing room to refocus our engineers on building out a whole new platform as opposed to servicing needs of existing clients.

BizcommunityWhat is the core function of Send it?

Our main purpose is to provide live video delivery.

BizcommunityWhat are some of the obstacles you’ve had to overcome since starting out?

Video tech is very difficult when building from first principles. There are a lot of open-source frameworks out there for video conferencing etc., but to do scalable few-to-many live video broadcasting is a challenging tech environment with an incredibly small margin of error. There is nowhere to hide during a live event if something breaks.

BizcommunityWhat services will you be providing?

Our offering is two-fold. For content creators, it’s a platform to help kickstart an online revenue stream or grow an existing audience through live video. For companies, it’s a fully customisable live video platform that is hosted in SA and can be reverse billed on local mobile networks.

BizcommunityCould you perhaps elaborate more about developing the platform?

We have a dedicated team of three highly-skilled engineers working on the internal mechanics of the platform. We’ve brought in freelancers, where needed, for consultation on user experience design, load testing and some other minor components.

We’ve been building this platform since the beginning of March and have a very long road map ahead. We’re very proud of what we have achieved thus far.

BizcommunityThe platform is free to use for now. How will you generate any revenue?

We currently take a 5% fee for any payments going through our platform. In the future, we will charge creators for hosting larger events. Our commercial white-label offering is a paid service and thus will be the most significant cash-generating component.

BizcommunityWill you need any assistance going forward?

At some stage, we would like to launch on a global scale, but there are a few features we’d like added before we get there. We’ll probably look to raise capital at that time.

BizcommunityLive streaming is quite a competitive market. What differentiates you from the competition?

We’re local, we provide excellent support, we’re currently very competitive in terms of price, and we’re an end-to-end solution for someone who is perhaps not that technical.

BizcommunityWhat trends would we start seeing in the online streaming market?

The streaming market globally is seeing a massive uptick. In the East, it’s already an enormous industry and hasn’t quite taken off elsewhere in the world.

We’re firm of the view that the unfortunate outbreak of the coronavirus is going to ramp up the adoption of live streaming.

Why apparel brands’ efforts to police their supply chains aren’t working

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Article by Jason Judd & Sarosh Kuruvilla on BizCommunity

For years, apparel brands have promised to police their supply chains to root out unsafe conditions and worker abuse. But new research from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations found a variety of problems in their efforts.

For example, much of the information given to the auditors who inspect factories was inaccurate, particularly in China and India.

More than half of the 31,652 factory audits conducted in those two countries over a seven-year period were based on falsified or unreliable information. The unreliable audits showed labourers working fewer hours per week and suggested much higher compliance with local wage laws than the more reliable audits. In one instance, labour audits of the same supplier by the same auditing firm in the same time period produced very different judgments.

The share of inaccurate audits was lower in the other 11 countries in the study, but still the average unreliability of all 40,458 audits examined was about 45%.

Why it matters

This means that brands cannot see the results of the many corporate social responsibility programmes intended to track and improve working conditions in their suppliers’ factories. As a result, there’s been not enough effort improving conditions. And consumers who want to use their spending to improve working conditions don’t have reliable information to inform their purchases.

How we do our work

Our team spent two years building trust with apparel companies, suppliers and other groups and persuading them to let us analyse their data. In exchange, we signed nondisclosure agreements that allowed us to work with unique, massive data sets never before available to researchers, making it possible to see the inner workings of large-scale labor compliance programs and help us measure their impacts.

The institutions were more willing to share data knowing it was anonymous and that our analysis could potentially benefit the industry as a whole.

What still isn’t known

A clearer picture begins with getting more reliable information. A recent analysis in Vox shows how bad data on the fashion industry’s environmental impacts distorts efforts to change them. Getting reliable data for labour compliance means that buyers and brands must invest in intelligence from workers, unions and bona fide due diligence.

What’s next

Our research shows why a mandatory system of due diligence – rather than the current voluntary one – may be necessary to fix the problem. The European Commission, for example, is considering a proposal that would require apparel, food and mining companies, among others, to implement human rights due diligence and accountability along their global supply chains and report publicly about their efforts.

But better reporting by itself won’t solve the problem. We believe workers and unions need to play a bigger role. A separate Cornell analysis found that compliance with safety and labour laws increases significantly when workers are able to bargain with managers over working conditions.

And unions may get a stronger voice as part of a new agreement with governments and brands like Adidas and H&M aimed at protecting the garment industry and its workers from a drop in demand due to the coronavirus recession.

Converse campaign showcases creativity during a crisis

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Article on BizCommunity

Converse has revealed the limited-edition sneaker designs to come out of its Unity campaign launched earlier this month.

Five South African artists were tasked with visually depicting the African experience of the Covid-19 virus in a way that breathes a refreshed message of hope, strength, positivity and survival into the classic white Converse Hi-top.

The campaign provides the opportunity to purchase a limited and exclusive sneaker featuring the artwork of some of the country’s most appreciated creatives. The local artists selected for the campaign were Fhatuwani Mukheli, Sindiso Nyoni, Nardstar, David Tshabalala and Falko Fantastic, and their unique designs are now available for pre-order on Converse’s website.

 

Each limited-edition sneaker will be customised with only 75 pairs available per design. In an effort to give back to an establishment that has been affected by the pandemic, Converse has selected the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund as the beneficiary to which all proceeds will go following the sale of all sneakers.

 

The Unity campaign ran alongside the apparel and footwear brand’s global #CreateAtHome campaign, which encouraged fans to explore, experiment and enhance their creativity whilst at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.