AfriCammers dig deep to keep site alive

Johannesburg, 02 Dec 2002

Fans of online game viewing site AfriCam (www.africam.co.za) have donated around R100 000 in the past 24 hours in response to an appeal for help by the owners of the Web site.

AfriCam sent out an e-mail to its 120 000 registered users yesterday, calling for donations to help keep the site operational. By this morning, about 150 users had already pledged a total of around R100 000.

AfriCam founding member Paul Clifford says this response is particularly remarkable because the appeal was issued during the US Thanksgiving Day weekend, with most users offline. He is optimistic that an even better response will be seen in the days to come.

The Web site, which was bought out of liquidation earlier this year, has been running on subscription fees and donations from avid "AfriCammers" during the year. Although it offers novel services and occasional special subscription-only areas, most of the site is still free for registered users.

Subscription-only services include the solar eclipse cam to cover this week`s solar eclipse, which has attracted about 100 subscribers paying almost $10 each.

The business was bought back by a consortium headed by original founder and Real Time Travel Connection MD Paul Clifford, founder Graham Wallington, former CEO Peter Armitage, "adventurer" Alex Wills and Djuma Game Reserve owners Jurie Moolman, Pippa Moolman and Campbell Scott.

In its e-mail sent to registered users yesterday, AfriCam pointed out that none of the team members had taken a salary this year. "The Internet is a wasteland at present from an economic perspective and the ability to generate revenue is extremely limited. We are keeping AfriCam running out of passion for the site, rather than out of any economic motive," they said.

AfriCam said its appeal for donations in February had brought in $32 000 from the AfriCam community, which had been sufficient to keep the site running until November. However, with operating costs of around $5 000 a month and revenue of only around $1 000 a month, the site is again running out of money and needs support to stay live.