Comments on: A rough history of the web industry in South Africa

By: Mark T

Mark T — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:40:58 +0000

Great article Jarred! I remember living through the wild west of the early digital pioneers from 1997, and its fascinating to see some of the other players that go back even earlier. EO were certainly ahead of their time, but also out of cape town I remember the Ogilvy acquired and also ill-fated Armadillo Interactive. One day maybe we will see this in a book.

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[...] Thought Leader » Jarred Cinman » A rough history of the web industry in South Africa http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/burningpaper/2007/11/09/a-rough-history-of-the-web-industry-in-south-africa – view page – cached A personal account of how the web industry got started, and some of the colourful characters who populated it [...]

By: za5

za5 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:24:44 +0000

This is very nostalgic, it takes me back to meeting Michele at a exhibition at Museum Africa, me working at the Milkyway Internet Cafe and working as a freelancer at VWV all those years back.

Can’t believe it was so long ago and how the internet has become an integral part of our lives (and cellphone bills).

By: Henk Kleynhans

Henk Kleynhans — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:51:48 +0000

Nice post! Am busy creating a Wikipedia article for David Frankel when I came across this!

By: Alan Hammond

Alan Hammond — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:36:35 +0000

Nice post – gets the spirit of the time nicely.

I have Steven Garrett to thank for my career in the internet biz as he published a magazine article in the early days with a basic introduction to html.

Two points of clarification though. Tim Spira was never MD of iafrica.com. He did work there directly after Metropolis started to collapse but he was responsible for selling Private Label. Also Jason X and Tim did not hire Matthew Buckland. He was already at iafrica.com well before the Metropolis (Sorry Metropolis*) debacle. He was originally hired by Rudi Nadler-Nir and allegedly peppered his conversations with the phrase, “when I worked at the BBC” – but that probably isn’t true!!

Alan Hammond

By: nomad-one

nomad-one — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:25:13 +0000

It’s so weird to read your article which reminds me of when I first entered the web scene somewhere at the end of your story. I remember many of these companies & names having experienced the energy of Jason Xenopolis when the whole iafrica.com Cape Town office was flown off to Joburg to meet their new bosses. They spoke about us being some kind of tribe blah blah etc. – Metropolis. Something weird happened when they came onto the scene which seemed to have taken iafrica down & not up.

I remember Matt Buckland was there as well. Moving off the Ogilvy Interactive brought me into that whole new media agency space and the eventual dotbomb which engulfed much of it.

It was interesting reading your story though the 7 years which follow it’s end would have formed a very important part of the “History” of the internet in SA. Why are you no longer part of the story? People with yoru kind of experience are needed to inject the perspective of experience into this equation.

By: Justin Hartman

Justin Hartman — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:55:44 +0000

Excellent post Jarred. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Having gone to Alon Apteker before for VC and knowing David Frankel as a family friend I know what amazing people these guys are. I am always inspired by the IS story in particular and I must say it certainly gives me a lot of hope for the future.

I look forward to your next history post in 10 years time to see where we’ve all ended up!

By: Riaan Snyders

Riaan Snyders — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:21:56 +0000

This is a great story. I have been involved in one of SA’s dotcom company at that time and later moved on – after the company went bust – to work for one of the development houses you mentioned in your post. It was a great time in the development of technology in SA and around the world.It was great to have been part of the evolution of the internet into what it is today.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:31:20 +0000

Glad you feel that way Jarred, but its not the feeling I’ve gotten from speaking to several not-uninfluential people about this. I would agree that there is money around – to me, this means that the money is either not being applied in the right places, or else its too difficult to meet the requirements [which get more difficult each day].

As I’ve asked elsewhere before, how can there be so many investors struggling to find good investment opportunities and also so many great entrepreneurs struggling to find funding? Obviously there’s a disconnect here, and I think solving this is one of the keys to unlocking huge value for SA in the not-so-distant future.

By: Jarred Cinman

Jarred Cinman — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:05:33 +0000

I think the industry has gotten a lot more serious, and the numbers are a lot bigger than they ever were. That said, startups are happening and succeeding every day. Look, for example, at Amatomu, Afrigator, MyDigitalLife, SA Rocks, and so on.

Money is always hard to come by, particularly for young, inexperienced people, but frankly I think there is a lot of it about at the moment, if you know where to look.