While the number of Internet users were stagnant between 2002 and 2007, the contributing factors to this growth are the landing of a SEACOM last year, grants of Electronic Communications Network Service licenses to over 400 organisations and also a continued uptake of broadband connectivity by small and medium enterprises.

Reshaad Sha, Senior Manager for Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, comments that South African consumers and businesses are demanding access to online applications and services that can only be experienced via high speed connectivity, such as fibre-optic networks. He says the year ahead will see the proliferation of high speed connectivity materialising more widely than ever before.

How can this affect our experience online?
The recent reduction in broadband costs is having a huge affect on the use of internet in South Africa and will continue to do so during 2010. Cost reductions make high speed connectivity more affordable, not only to businesses but also the normal man on the street. Therefore, I would expect to see a huge growth trend in the overall Internet usage for South Africa in 2010.

More affordable connectivity will allow an increasing number of users to go online and the demand will affect connectivity from homes, the office and mobile devices.

Let’s face it, Internet costs in South Africa have not been the cheapest and you still get people who are afraid of spending hours online, afraid of the cost, therefore limiting the time they spend online.

That picture is going to change dramatically and should cause an influx of many “inexperienced” consumers who will be flocking to social networks or have the need to establish themselves online as first time users. At home, many folks will acquire a connection for the first time or they may be changing from a dialup to broadband or even from a small broadband package to one with larger upload and download speeds. Whatever the scenario, it simply means that more families will start spending time online and more people will be exposed to the Internet. This is laying the foundation for many of the younger generations to come.

There will also be small companies who will swop their dialup’s for better connectivity and their staff will increase their time spent online, moving away from just connecting to check mail or reading the odd news article to spending hours browsing and researching. These smaller companies will also look at getting themselves some kind of online presence (if they don’t have one) or will seek to improve their current site. Bigger companies who are Internet savvy will similarly upgrade their broadband connectivity while at the same time invest in improving the upload/download capacity of the server where their sites are hosted.

I don’t expect marketing strategies to change much from what we’ve seen in 2009. The increase of numbers in the market space as well as the improved speed of broadband will certainly make companies realise the potential and they will try to take advantage of it by either improving their own stable or by renewing/continuing their marketing efforts.

I do foresee that an increasing number of individuals and corporates will look at their own websites, knowing that previous limitations regarding high quality visuals or video streaming won’t be there any longer and they will start to look at implementing improved interactivity to their sites.

I see this as a little chain of events. Cheaper rates and improved broadband speeds will increase the demand in connectivity while at the same time improve the quality of websites and web applications online which in turn will also provide online marketing and design agencies the opportunity to improve the quality of sites and services.

So am I saying that cheaper, faster internet connections will bring better experience online? I guess I am. It may not happen overnight, but by the end of 2010 we could see some improvement in general which will just set the trend for 2011. Only time will tell.

How can this affect our behaviour?
One thing about human nature is that we either get used to something and accept it for what it is, or we get dissatisfied and look for something better. When we discover that we can get a better solution for a fraction of the cost we are currently paying, or a faster broadband service for the same price, we jump at the chance. We will invest time and money to explore it, play with it and make it our own. This happens to individuals who operate independantly as well as individuals who make decisions for large corporates. Whether we are accessing the Internet from our homes, the office or our mobiles, we will always want something better, faster and cheaper to power us into whatever we do online.

In conclusion, I completely agree with Mr. Reshaad Sha from Cisco. In 2010, South African consumers and businesses will demand a higher level of access to online applications and services as well as better experiences via high speed connectivity. This is putting the responsibility on Service Providers and Design/Marketing Agencies alike to make it all happen. Let’s hope they all respond in kind.

I have to mention that longtail previously invited Stafford to speak on Google’s involvement in South Africa at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange which I was not able to attend, so the following are my impressions taken from his latest presentation. This is in the particular order of randomness.

Don’t think only ‘search‘ when you see Google – think BIGGER, much BIGGER. Google are set on bringing information straight to your doorstep, be it on your computer or your cell phone. Relevant content, images and soon also maps for SA. Interesting enough Google has the biggest datacenter in the world – 14 times the size of NASA.

Some interesting stats and notes:

• Information is more accessible on mobile phones
• 1 in 6 searches done on the Internet are done on mobile phones.
• South Africa ranks as 3rd largest in query volume behind Japan and India being 1^st and 2^nd respectively.
• Google recently launched Google mobile ads which functions on their motto of ‘Moment of Relevance’ so you don’t have to scroll through tedious pages of content before finding what you are looking for.
• We are the 4^th country in the world to get mobile universal search.
• There are more mobile phones in the world than tv, pc’s and credit cards combined and I think this is the future for branding your company, getting your information out there and communicating to your target market.
• Currently Google SA does not have any competitors in this field and it is huge for them.

Not only do they bring us search results, they have gone and made it a true experience to search for something.

Pay-Per-Click and Quality Scores
Despite popular belief Pay Per Click Ads on Search Result Pages are actually not ranked due to the amount advertisers pay but according to the Quality Score given. Quality Scores are made up of 4 very vital features which is:

1. The Speed of Landing Page
2. The Quality of Landing Page
3. The Number of ‘click troughs’ (high or low)
4. The Moment of Relevance

Some companies make use of additional links (Google co-op) under their search result listing that allows you to simply browse their site without actually opening their landing page eg. Microsoft.

Google SA will be bringing us Google Maps soon with great prospects. It is currently up and running in the States and a real ground breaker when it comes to mapping. You can get step by step directions that guide you from point A to B and these will update if you drag the dots on the map to alternate the route. You can also place ‘yourself’ in the vicinity by dragging the little man onto the street you would like to view – this will allow you to view the surroundings which opens up even more possibilities. Should it just be to familiarize yourself with the area, to get visual land marks for when you are in the area, to sussing out an area before you go look at a house that’s for sale/rent and even better, you can advertise on this virtual street, meaning that browsers can ‘walk into’ your shop, see what it looks like and even order from your menu. This is a whole new advertising market that’s opening up.

Google prides themselves on using a fast platform, they are able to go through posted content in 0.7 seconds by using their spiders to grab all the relevant information. This is even faster abroad and sitting at a whopping 0.03sec. This allows for up to the minute news reporting and CNN tapped into this market. Instead of sending out reporters they now have over 300 000 civilians uploading ground breaking news where they are in the heat of the moment using i-report.

With YouTube being a part of Google they have expanded their services even more. 14% of total traffic in South Africa is just YouTube and this will probably grow due to the fact that they promise to improve the download time and search experience in September as they are building new centers locally with new servers. YouTube statistics can be tracked for your video – how long it’s been viewed, do they complete the watch and from where they are. Companies are starting to utilize this medium to post competitions and to draw the market to their product.

In South Africa we have under 5 million people connected to the internet currently and less than a million broadband users. Hopefully this number will increase as Google is working hard in trying to lower broadband costs. So we can start looking forward to SA going from the most expensive to one of the cheapest in terms of connectivity and they would like to see this at the end of 2010 and have between 12 and 17 million people connected.

Google is clearly bringing the world to us click by click, be it information, other users, video, advertising, maps and up to the minute news reporting. It’s out there – so you might as well use it.