SA's goal in the Net

A Google search of the World Cup 2010 SA yields 114 000 000 results. With SA's Internet user base booming by 15%, to reach 5.3 million in 2010, it is clear the Internet has been an integral communication platform for the tournament both locally and internationally.

A key enabler of SA's ability to participate on the online platform has been the laying of various undersea cables. Ahead of the World Cup, the $600 million Seacom cable boosted SA's broadband capacity from around 80Gbps in 2007 to 1.28Tbps of capacity in 2010, explains Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.

With an increase in the number of mobile and Internet users, as well as more data-intensive applications, such as high-definition TV, Facebook and YouTube, Seacom predicts this event will see a marked capacity increase from the 2006 World Cup. The 2006 event moved a record 21TB of voice and data traffic for the teams, Fifa officials, local organisers, media and other event partners.

Putting this into perspective using average values, this equals over seven million MP3s, 2.5 million PDF books, 2.2 million high-resolution digital pictures, or 22 000 full-length movies.

“It is fortunate that the arrival of Seacom, and the deregulation of the infrastructure market has meant Internet service providers (ISPs) have been working on upgrading their networks to meet customer demand for many months now, and I think they are well positioned to deal with any additional demand on their networks during the World Cup,” says Ant Brooks, MD of ISPA.

“The Internet has played a major part in our preparation for the World Cup. The lion's share of which has been geared towards offering the first point of contact into the country - an opportunity that SA has mostly made use of.”

People usually turn to the Internet as their first port of call when looking for information about big events and, as such, many companies have recognised the potential offered by the Internet ahead of the World Cup, says Julie Taylor, Google's communication manager for SA.

“These companies are not only using 'mainstream' online marketing such as Google AdWords, but they are also making the most of free offerings such as listing their business for free in Google Places, or embedding the Google Maps API in their Web sites,” she continues.

Howard Rybko, CEO of Web development firm Syncrony, agrees: “Most of our larger corporate customers have made some sort of World Cup effort. Their efforts range from placing a token soccer ball on the home page, to a dedicated online product sales system.”

Rybko predicts, however, that online traffic will drop after the World Cup. “Many purpose-built online destinations will cease to be visited and will fall into disrepair. I would expect the traffic volumes to follow the normal bell curve pattern, tapering off to low levels by the end of the year.”

Despite this, Taylor expects that corporates will continue their online strategies, especially after they have experienced the benefits of what the Internet brought them during the World Cup.

Goldstuck argues that concerns around Fifa's policing of its brand ownership did deter some South African businesses from joining the World Cup spirit. Even big brands that have been Fifa approved have not fully harnessed the opportunity.

Most South African brands have, by large, not figured out how to leverage the Internet in general as a marketing tool, let alone for a specific event like the Soccer World Cup, opines Goldstuck.

The exception in leveraging the World Cup online, he notes, has been among those brands that are already using the Internet intelligently and effectively, like kulula.com and Mail & Guardian.

Among South African World Cup sponsors, MTN has done cool things on its site and FNB's Shine 2010 is an excellent World Cup news portal and blog, he adds.

However, Goldstuck points out that major brands and international World Cup sponsors have failed in their online campaigns regarding the top sporting event. “Coke doesn't even mention the World Cup on their front page - that's nothing short of criminal when you consider the scope of their involvement in the event.”

A wasted opportunity, argues Goldstuck, is the Sony SA Web site. While this site has a big plug for the Sony partnership with Fifa on the front page, it consists mostly of a message from the CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, about how excited he is about the partnership - and not about the World Cup itself.

“It wastes a huge opportunity to leverage Sony's huge involvement in rolling out 3D broadcasting at the tournament, and is a classic example of the 1990s corporate strategy of focusing on boardroom stakeholders rather than consumers,” he continues.

The brands that get it right for the World Cup will continue to get it right, but will obviously move on from the event, he predicts.

Despite progress made ahead of the Soccer World Cup, the Organisation for Economic Development's report from late 2009 found that SA still lags behind countries like Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt.

With this in mind, millions of rands' worth of infrastructure will be worth nothing unless the infrastructure is geared towards a legacy of reaching SA's masses.

Goldstuck argues that, while Seacom has been positioned as a contributor to SA's preparations for the World Cup, its full impact is expected to be felt only subsequent to the sporting event.

By 2012, the Seacom cable is expected to deliver 20Tbps - an increase of 150% in broadband capacity from 2008.

“At this point Seacom's role in the World Cup will fall away and the company will have to focus on growing organically and addressing specific market needs,” he continues.

“With the increase in competition in the South African communications industry, and the landing of the new international cables, South African ISPs are already seeing substantial growth in Internet traffic, which is good news for the sector,” notes Brooks.

“If there is an additional increase in traffic post-2010, this will add to the economies of scale and help ISPs provide faster and cheaper services to their customers in the future,” he continues.

William Hahn, Gartner analyst, agrees: “Seacom and other cables offer limitless opportunities and this infrastructure is not going away.”

He explains that post-2010, this infrastructure will promote competition between ISPs, and consumers stand to benefit from truly converged services.

“There is a fundamental change in the way people consume the Internet when they are not worried about slow capped broadband,” concludes Hahn.

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