Internet 'nomads` boost SA Web-mail services

Although international service providers still account for the majority of South African Web-based e-mail accounts, local providers offer a highly competitive and, in some cases, superior service, according to a recent survey conducted by World Wide Worx.

The Goldstuck Report on Web Free-Mail in SA found that the "nomadic" nature of South African Internet users, a fact ascribed to high Internet service provider (ISP) churn and frequent business travel, is proving to be a boon to suppliers of free Web e-mail services.

The report, which covers three local and two offshore service providers, highlights a number of areas in which local providers were highly competitive with their international counterparts. These areas included ease of registration, speed of service and security. Areas in which local providers fell short of the standard included address management services and supplemental features.

Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, says the high churn rate in South African ISP membership, together with a high propensity for international business travel, are creating a new breed of Internet user that he refers to as the "Internet nomad".

"While Web-based mail services can be of benefit to almost any user, it is especially attractive to the Internet nomad - a new kind of user we are breeding in SA." Goldstuck adds that companies` increasing tendency to monitor personal e-mail has also boosted the popularity of the services.

The five services covered by the report are Ananzi Mail, Myiafrica.com and Webmail, with Hotmail and Yahoo Mail representing the international offerings. Of a total of 804 285 South African Web-based e-mail registrations, 365 568 were registered with Hotmail, 325 000 were claimed by Webmail and 110 717 were accredited to Ananzi Mail. Almost a third of the total registrations were found to be inactive. Of the 515 000 active accounts, 368 000 were registered with Hotmail, around 100 000 for Webmail and 47 000 for Ananzi Mail.

Ananzi Mail scored highly in the set-up rankings, requiring only five mandatory answers in comparison with seven for Myiafrica and more than 12 for Webmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. Yahoo and Hotmail, however, scored significantly higher than local services in the features comparison, with both offering services such as HTML views, templates and formatting as well as a number of additional services.

The most significant advantage that local service providers have over their international counterparts, says Goldstuck, is speed. "In our measure of access speed at various times of day ... Ananzi Mail provides the fastest access to the log-in page, followed by Webmail and Myiafrica. Yahoo is somewhat slower and Hotmail the slowest. In other words, hosting location becomes a major factor in speed access."

The heaviest criticism in the report was aimed at the Hotmail and Yahoo services which did not automatically log users out after a pre-set time while all three of the local services timed out after a pre-set period of inactivity. The report highlighted the fact that in the South African context, in which state organisations are looking to public access terminals to provide connectivity to a broader range of citizens, the failure to automatically log out could be a significant security risk.

Goldstuck concludes that among the South African Web-based mail services, Ananzi is in the best position to dominate the market. Hotmail, however, was noted as a significant competitor because of its strong localisation features.

He says the free Web-based e-mail services provide a significant threat to ISPs whose Web-based services do not provide the functionality that free service providers do.

"This represents both an area of differentiation for the free services and an area for potential improvement in value for paying customers," says Goldstuck. "With half-a-million Web-based mail accounts active during any given month, it is a service arena that cannot be ignored by the dialup Internet operators or potential advertisers."