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The more you share the more you kno... Taking the gap leaves big hole... Service that is more than just pretty p... Ready to tap Internet's potential... All set to become a major force... Get in the swing with Ernie ... Hired guns taking aim at business target... Vital role for information provider... Turning couch potatoes into mouse potato... Interim plan, lasting succes... Downsizing not always up to the require... Taking the guesswork out of productio... The firm which took Toco's bull by the h... Fads dropped in favour of fact... Companies still keen to consul... |
A tricky place to do businessM-WEB operates in an industry that is undergoing tremendous growth, but is at the same time fraught with difficulties. A modem standards war was only recently settled; local Internet service providers are still unsure whether Telkom will be granted a monopoly on Internet connections; and South Africa is slipping in the world rankings of the most-connected Internet countries. It's not all doom, however. M-Web executives say a flood of new Internet users will boost demand for services and upbeat Internet electronic commerce figures will see transactions to the tune of R500-million happen online this year. According to a recent survey, South Africa remains one of the top 20 most connected countries to the Internet at number 17. But an influx of new surfers of the digital wave from countries like Taiwan, Brazil, New Zealand and Korea, as well as a slowdown in local connections means it will probably drop out of the top 20. According to the latest biannual domain name survey, conducted by Network Wizards, the South African domain of the Internet has grown by less than 4% over the last six months. It grew less than 19% during the first six months of last year, which means South African Internet growth slowed to just 23% during 1997 - compared to 105% growth the year before. But business is still booming on the Net in South Africa. During 1997, according to research company Media Africa, around R250-million changed hands in business conducted on the Internet in South Africa. The company predicts that figure will at least double this year, representing a huge hidden economy. In the feud between Telkom and the Internet Service Providers' Association over the right to provide Internet access, there is still no resolution. The association took on Telkom after the parastatal insisted only it could provide Internet access, based on the exclusivity component of its licence. The result, after more than a year, is still undecided by the courts so it's business as usual in the meantime. On the hardware front, the high-speed modem standards war was ended recently when a UN telecommunication body formally adopted a new standard for the devices. Officials at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva thrashed out an agreement to merge two competing standards for 56-kbps modems. Internet experts at M-Web are upbeat about the year ahead - they say increased business both on and around the Web is a certainty. Top of page
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