Public Internet services are finding their niche in the Mother City Lauren Shantall Have you ever heard of an Internet caf’? If it is a ridiculous question for the year 2000, then that’s only because South Africans have embraced the Age of the Computer to such an extent that we’ve internalised it and our modems. Which makes it all the more difficult to believe that barely four years ago there was only one Internet caf’, the I-Caf’, in Cape Town. It closed down in 1996, soon after opening. Ahead of its time, the I-Caf”s innovative supply soon outstripped public demand – despite it having been a godsend for the backpacking trade that had started to trickle through the city and a breakthrough for those few Capetonians who were willing to leave their beaches to find out what surfing the World Wide Web was all about. Carefully situated on trendy Long Street and open 24 hours a day, it could not be saved from an apathetic and largely ignorant public still channeled into TV and other “old” media. But all that has, of course, changed. As one caf’ assistant put it: “Everyone wants an e-mail address even if they can’t operate a computer.” Today there are seven Internet caf’s gracing Long Street alone. There are 12 on Main Road, Sea Point, two in the cosy suburb of Observatory (a previous attempt closed in 1998 due to lack of business), and, and, and … boom time. It doesn’t take a kitchen statistician to note that Cape Town’s Internet caf’s have increased rapidly in conjunction with the rise in the number of tourists flooding into the Mother City, South Africa’s reigning hotspot for foreign visitors. That much is obvious. But the advent of the larger Internet service providers like M-Web and Yebonet has also meant that the Web has enjoyed what that initial I-Caf’ probably needed all along – a good, old-fashioned advertising campaign. So nowadays Internet caf’s are being increasingly patronised by local users who don’t own personal computers. The Virtual Turtle opened its first Netscape Window at approximately the same time that the I-Caf’ shut down. Back in 1996 the market was “100% tourist”, says owner Hans Gerrizen. Due to public demand the Virtual Turtle chain is now opening its third caf’ and has franchise opportunities queuing in the outbox. Gerrizen and project manager Moreno Franco estimate that their clientele has risen to 40% local and 60% tourist.
However, most caf’ owners in Cape Town concede that their market remains roughly 80% tourist and this percentage increases during the summer season. Jumping on the bandwidth-wagon, many budget lodges have started providing their own Internet connections for homesick residents and external clients. The Ashanti Lodge, Accommodation and Travel Centre, for example, has been dialling up for the past three years. The Cat and Moose Backpackers Lodge, on the other hand, invited Monique Greathead to set up her shop NetXpress on their Long Street premises “because they were receiving so many requests from backpackers for e-mail facilities”. Unlike the Virtual Turtle – which happens to be opening its third shop right next door to hers – Greathead does not follow the computers, coffee and Castle formula. She may branch into computer training if her “business services” slant does not attract enough customers. Yes, the competition is more than hotting up and most caf’s already offer a range of computer-related or other facilities to supplement their incomes. Not resting solely on its cyber laurels is Phatbeat Records and Internet Caf’, also on Long Street. “Multimedia and gaming is the future of it,” reckons Phatbeat assistant John Fourie. Having witnessed the failure of the I-Caf’, he is understandably wary of dedicating whole premises entirely to Internet connectivity.
Fourie may well be right. Gamestation, on Main Road, Sea Point, is the only caf’ in Cape Town offering network gaming as well as connectivity. Manager Jade Benson says Gamestation attracts about 90 clients a day and even more over the weekends when gaming competitions are held. But business is so tight, says Benson, that “a competitor once came in here and started a screaming match over our prices in front of all our customers”.
Sea Point’s Main Road boasts even more caf’s than the city bowl. The competition is thus fiercer, with the consequence that prices are generally cheaper. Other Sea Point places, like Orbit, offer a free inbox check as a customer lure. Salesman Marc Cowen thinks that the competition is only “encouraging. It shows that we’re in the right market and the market is ready. Not just the tourists, it’s the locals. The locals are now more educated about e-mail, the Internet and e-commerce. It’s good.” A viable business opportunity is always a good thing it seems. Yet opening another Internet caf’ in Cape Town is more likely to be highly risky in an almost saturated market. A saturated market? Now that’s something we certainly wouldn’t have heard of, let alone seen, back in 1996.