E-commerce promising - EIU

South Africa ranks in the world’s top 20 countries in terms of the number of Internet sites, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in an e-commerce survey. Of the estimated three million Internet users in Africa, two million are in South Africa.

The number of dial-up subscribers has grown by an average annual rate of 80 percent since 1994, according to the state telecomms utility Telkom, and the number of users surpassed the one million mark by 1998. According to the EIU, the number of dial-up accounts in South Africa is expected to reach 360,000 by 2002. The Internet subscribers market in South Africa is already the largest on the African continent, followed by Egypt, Morocco and Kenya. “With the rapid growth in Internet use forecast in South Africa, the potential for growth in e-commerce is promising,” the survey said.

E-commerce in South Africa takes the forms now in use in most countries where this electronic medium is beginning to develop. This includes ordering and payment of conventional products and sale of financial services to the more developed “storefront” shopping at some sites. “Overall, e-commerce is at an early stage, but the variety of uses will increase as the sector grows,” the survey said. Banking-sector estimates on the size of retail and business transactions on the Internet fluctuate widely, but the business-to-business (B2B) market in South Africa has been estimated at US $250-488 million, with potential for extensive growth, the EIU noted.