 Hello everybody. Yeah, my name is Darlene DeBastien and I am super happy to be back at Media Evolution, the conference this year. I got asked to host a session on mobile banking in Africa last year, so I'm really happy to be back here this year to host the session on China and Africa drivers in innovation and new behavior. So just for the format of our session now, I'm going to give you a really brief intro into the topic just to set the scenes for you. And then we have two experts coming up to share their insights and hopefully we'll leave time for a bit of Q&A and discussion. So we're gonna, what we're gonna do in this session is we're gonna take you on a little bit of a trip around the world. We're gonna leave Europe for this next hour and why are we doing so? So often we talk about global media and the world is a village and end up really not looking outside of our own little bubble. Yet, I find this is so important because looking across into other places and finding out how how media consumption and media development work there not only help us access these new markets, but also help us to learn and understand ourselves so much better. So today we're going to look at two places, two places, which I think we don't know enough about yet, China and Africa. So let's start with the basics. Let's start with the map. In China, China is of course the world's largest country with over 3.1.3 billion people living there today. All of these 1.3 billion people living under one authoritarian regime. In total, more people live in China than in the whole of Africa. We're just about 1 billion people live today. Of course, Africa is not just one country, but a continent of 54 countries as diverse in culture, economic and political system, as you can imagine, ranging from harsh dictatorships to promising democracies. So of course, there's a big difference, many differences. We're going to hear about differences and similarities. But starting perhaps with China is of course, you know, acclaimed superpower has huge influence on the international community, both in political and economic terms. However, at the same time, China is also affected by the international economic crisis with growth rates stagnating and still has huge difficulties on a national level, overcoming disparities between urban and rural areas and the rich and the poor. This is of course, so much truer for Africa, which for the longest time has been considered the world's poor house with very little influence on political systems, political and trade systems, that is, basically just being the recipient of Western aid. But with a mobile revolution taking place, that image is slowly beginning to change. And according to Wired, even if you want to be the next internet billionaire, you'd all better start thinking about moving to Africa. So, the growing Chinese middle class has of course, a huge demand for media and entertainment. However, because of the political framework, social media consumption works very different in China than in many other countries around the world. Western and international social media networks, companies and platforms have huge difficulties entering the market if it's at all possible. And often, national alternatives replace popular international networks. Of course, Western companies also, if they make it into the Chinese market, risk-suffering image loss, as I'm sure as you all remember what happened to Google when they bowed down to Chinese censorship laws. Now, for the longest time in Africa, Western companies were really reluctant to invest, at least that is many of them because of the huge risks involved. And I would say that has definitely begun to change. Actually, there's a huge gold rush happening in Africa right now, where prepaid and mobile other buzzwords and media and telecommunication companies are really starting to look at the African market and adapt their solutions accordingly. For instance, Facebook has had a huge success in Africa over the past years. Mainly, I would argue, because they introduced a service called Facebook Zero, which allows people to access the network for free from their mobile phones. This service was later introduced in Europe. Another example, and Mark is going to tell you a little bit more about these things later on, is prepaid and mobile payment systems. That's something that's just starting to happen to break in Germany right now, but is well in place in countries like Kenya, in Africa. And much of this development is facilitated by the spread of cheap mobile, in particular, cheap smartphones. And here, most definitely, the Chinese producer, Huawei, is the strongest competitor and really breaking the market in Africa. But not only in Africa, I've recently read an article saying that Apple should watch out for Huawei, instead for Samsung as being the next competitor in our markets, as well as a provider of cheap smartphones in the future. So, as I said in the beginning, it's definitely worth looking at these markets and the trends taking place there, if we want to be on the ball for what's up next in Europe. And to provide us with really expert insights, both on China and Africa, I'm really excited to welcome my two speakers to this session today. Trisha Wang is a cultural sociologist and is passionate about finding out how people use digital technologies in their everyday lives, using methods such as immersive ethnography, I had to read that properly. And from using these research methods, also creating commercially relevant insights for her customers, which include design companies, technologists, investors and journalists. Basically, she provides insights for people and cultural knowledge to develop products for consumers all over the world. And Trisha is currently publishing or working on publishing a book about her research. Of course, she has other interests in her past life as well, and that includes working for non-profit organizations and managing those, for instance, promoting the pedagogical use of hip-hop in low-income countries, organizing communities and promoting HIV and AIDS awareness. Mark has just landed from Kenya. I'm really glad that both made it here today. And yes, well, Mark has different hats he's wearing, which are all very exciting. He is... Oh, sorry. I got so excited about my two speakers, I forgot to show you their websites. This is Trisha's. I'll leave that for a moment just to have a look, but I'm sure you can share your contact details throughout the conference so people can find you after as well. And here's Mark's. So yeah, as I said, Mark has different hats. And one of those is being a storyteller and a writer and being passionate about really writing Africa's next chapter in the world hitched history, which is going to be a chapter about innovation. He has a job as a consultant based in Nairobi and is also a partner of the platform AfriInnovator.com, which I all encourage you to have a look at, especially if you're interested in African innovation technologies and the start-up scene especially happening in Nairobi, Kenya, which is very exciting to watch. Mark is also the Nairobi ambassador for the Sandbox Next work and an award-winning creator of a Warner Brothers video game created for the African market. Mark has written animated short films and directed different movies, so I'm really excited to have the two of you here today. And as I said, they're each going to take a turn and give a presentation to you and then we're going to have time to chat with each other a little bit. So firstly, I would like to welcome Trisha onto the stage. Please give a big round of applause and a welcome to Trisha.