A new online advertising concept - "The Million Rand Idea" - went live on 1 October, offering a total of one million pixels (no more, no less) of permanent, unchanging advertising space at R1 a pixel.
The site creators, Andy Law and Jake Beetge, say their homepage is divided into 10 000 100-pixel blocks, each measuring 10x10 pixels.
The reason for selling them in 100-pixel blocks is because anything smaller would be too small to display anything meaningful, say Law and Beetge. "The advertiser then gets a spot that links to his business."
The pair came across the idea on a Web site called milliondollarhomepage.com.
Appreciating the marketing potential of the idea, they thought the idea could be adapted for the local market, so "built a uniquely South African site with the cheeky yet relevant name of www.millionrandidea.co.za," they say.
Law and Beetge are Cape Town friends who "felt it was time to go and see the big wide world" and "how well we, as South Africans cope and are geared toward the international work front".
They ended up in London and realised that earning a tertiary qualification was important above all else.
"A good qualification makes the world of sense - you realise it even more when dealing in the international arena," they say. Law is doing a business course specialising in project and change management and Beetge is furthering his career in IT, specialising in online marketing with an element of design.
Paying for their studies and not having to work long hours as waiters and barmen in between became their main motivation for creating the site. Secondary to this is their aspiration to not graduate with a huge debt because "in pounds, that`s a lot of money".
It`s not all about the money though: "We guarantee to keep it online for at least five years, but hopefully much longer. We want it to become a kind of South African Internet time capsule.
"So, in the long run, we believe the pixels will offer good value. You will have a piece of Internet history. Everyone is welcome to buy our pixels. You can buy as many pixels as you like, as long as there are some available."
Their idea has sparked interest in the business community and they are working together with the SA Times, an online news portal, and the SA Business Club, they say.
Law and Beetge plan to return to SA for Christmas, and more permanently once they have completed their studies. The long cold winters are definitely a determining factor, they say.
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