Horse-trading between the South African government and internet tourism company Virtual Countries has begun in earnest over the rights to the domain southafrica.com
Communications department director-general Andile Ncagaba said he hoped the matter could be settled out of court and that he was confident that even in the event of litigation, that the government would win the case.
He added that the department was not willing to pay the rumoured figure of $500 000 that New Zealand reportedly paid to Virtual Companies to regain control of its domain name.
Envir Fraser, senior manager for e-business at the department, declined to comment on the amounts being discussed between the government and Virtual Countries, saying that quoting any figure would jeopardise negotiations.
He also declined to comment when asked how much government has spent in legal fees to gain control of the domain.
Fraser said his department planned to use the domain as part of a ‘holistic marketing’ drive, to push South Africa as a brand, rather than just another sunny tourist destination. The communications department plans to use the domain to represent all aspects of the country, including using it to attract investors.
In addition to South Africa, Virtual Countries also owns the domains of Ecuador, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Bangladesh and Nepal.
At the Southafrica.com site, users are greeted by an attractive home page with a photomontage of Table Mountain, indigenous people and lions and elephants. But if you click deeper into the site, this all seems to be a façade, with broken links and content lacking in detail. An e-mail to the company requesting further information about the website went unanswered.
Currently, Virtual Countries is setting the price and effectively determining the worth of the domain; it remains to be seen if the department can match their call.