A back-to-basics AfriCam could go live later this month, if the High Court accepts a bid for the company by a group of original AfriCam founders.
AfriCam, once regarded as one of SA`s most popular and successful Web sites, applied for provisional liquidation of its SA Services in October. A group headed by original founder and Real Time Travel Connection MD Paul Clifford is now bidding to buy the company. Also involved in the planning are original founders Graham Wallington and Djuma Game Reserve owner Jurie Moolman, as well as former AfriCam CEO Peter Armitage.
Armitage says the High Court is due to decide this week whether it will accept the bid by Real Time Travel Connection. If the sale goes through, he says, the deal will effectively mean that Real Time Travel takes over the liquidated company, with some of the former management participating.
In the months following the liquidation, saddened AfriCam fans found solace in a pair of live game Web cams operated by the Djuma Game Reserve within the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, where the first AfriCam Web cams were installed in 1998. Djuma operates two Web cams from its Web site at www.djuma.co.za. Game reserve director Pippa Moolman also hosts a chat room on the site, where former AfriCam viewers meet up to air their views on the loss of AfriCam and compare game viewing notes. Jurie Moolman says AfriCam had a following of almost addicted fans, who have been deeply distressed by the shut down of the site.
While operational planning is still underway, Moolman says that if the sale goes through, AfriCam is likely to be a subscription site in future, to make it easier to connect income with expense and make the site`s hit rate more manageable.
Armitage points out that the Internet advertising market is not doing well at the moment, and says paid subscriptions are probably the best way to make the company profitable at this stage. "The test of a product is if people are prepared to pay for it," he says.
Costs of a revived AfriCam would also be kept down by operating cameras and running the site from the Djuma Game Reserve, with the help of two Linux experts to be based in Johannesburg.
"It would be very much like the original AfriCam," says Moolman. "We will start off with two to three cams on our property, and possibly a couple more in other reserves in SA. In many cases, the cams and equipment are still in the field, and can be reactivated at the flick of a switch," he says. "But AfriCam would return as a simpler entity than it was last year. We will aim to recapture our position as the only virtual game reserve in the world."
While immediate plans are for a "back-to-basics" service, Armitage and Moolman say future expansion and partnerships have not been ruled out. "A site like AfriCam could be a valuable marketing tool to promote trade and tourism to SA. It may be that at some point synergies are found with partners that allow us to make it a free site again," says Moolman.
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