Most visited websites in South Arica
According to the November 2011 Effective Measure statistics, News24 attracted 3,065,529 unique visitors last month, well ahead of its closest rivals Howzit.MSN with 1,825,136 unique visitors and IOL with 1,812,074 unique visitors.
When looking at local-only traffic the same three websites topped the rankings. News24 is ranked at number 1 with 2,007,587 unique visitors, followed by Howzit.MSN (1,586,159) and IOL (975,345).
News24 also has the largest mobile (mobi) website with 941,296 unique monthly visitors, followed by Vodafone Live (766,585) and SuperSport mobile (673,639).
The following tables list the top ranked South African websites according to total unique monthly visitors and local visitors.
| Total traffic | ||
| Website | Unique Visitors | Page Views |
| News24 | 3,065,529 | 44,493,873 |
| Howzit.MSN | 1,825,136 | 27,409,274 |
| IOL | 1,812,074 | 20,871,435 |
| MyBroadband | 945,013 | 5,814,001 |
| Sport24 | 883,931 | 7,881,606 |
| SuperSport | 864,039 | 13,066,892 |
| TimesLive | 850,677 | 7,212,630 |
| JunkMail | 819,996 | 21,016,436 |
| Webmail | 733,327 | 30,051,718 |
| Vodacom | 672,340 | 9,775,951 |
| Local traffic | ||
| Website | Unique Visitors | Page Views |
| News24 | 2,083,468 | 37,551,923 |
| Howzit.MSN | 1,596,875 | 24,891,440 |
| IOL | 1,060,564 | 16,681,033 |
| Webmail | 666,152 | 27,858,045 |
| Junkmail | 641,456 | 16,938,020 |
| Sport24 | 634,995 | 5,932,709 |
| Vodacom | 624,604 | 9,333,530 |
| MWEB | 584,445 | 14,219,951 |
| Privateproperty | 575,935 | 15,487,426 |
| Property24 | 533,381 | 14,182,380 |
| MyBroadband | 518,229 | 4,497,546 |
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Afrigator closed down
Afrigator was launched in the golden age of blogging in South Africa, and at its peak the website indexed thousands of African blogs, podcasts and videos.
Afrigator, an African social media aggregator which was launched in 2007, closed down on 1 December 2011.
In September 2008 the Naspers division MIH Print Africa acquired a majority stake in Afrigator which brought additional funding and further developed the Afrigator platform. However, the relationship did not last, and the owners of Afrigator bought back their shares at a later stage.
Afrigator also ran Adgator – an advertising network launched in late 2008 which helped African blogs to monetise their traffic through a service similar to Google Adsense. Adgator closed down in September 2011.
“About two months ago we closed Adgator down due to declining revenue and a core shift in focus for the four shareholders involved. Due to all of us having other interests Adgator became more of a burden than asset,” explained Afrigator founder Justin Hartman.
Justin Hartman
“Afrigator was closed down essentially to avoid the recurring costs of running the operation. The hosting bill to run Afrigator (across a pretty intense server structure) was just too high when you consider our primary revenue stream was closed down a few months earlier.”
“It’s been 4 years and 9 months since Afrigator started and while it’s a sad time for all of us concerned it was coming and needed to be done. Businesses don’t fail – people give up and this is true about Afrigator. As soon as our focus shifted we could no longer focus on growing Afrigator.”
Hartman is currently the CEO of SocialCode, a digital agency which he founded in 2010 that offers a range of digital services for clients which include UNICEF, Hyundai, SuperSport, Remgro, Vodacom and Distell.
Afrigator is however not the only ‘Web 2.0’ startup which did not last. Muti, an African bookmarking website similar to Digg and Reddit, changed into an online directory recently.
Despite receiving numerous accolades locally and internationally, Muti failed to attract the critical mass needed to make a social networking website successful.
mybroadband
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Nokia N9
Nokia N9: The hardware, both an evolution of the critically acclaimed Nokia N8 and an insight into what we might expect with the next chapter of Nokias. With its edgy plastic build, 1GHz processor, 3.9″ AMOLED screen, 8MP camera and not least of all, MeeGo, the enigmatic Nokia N9 is both a proud tribute to yesterday and an optimistic insight into Nokia’s tomorrow.
Design:
Undoubtedly, Nokia has churned out some fantastic hardware in recent years. Take the N8 and E7, respectively at the top of their game when it comes to product design with beautiful annodised alluminum chasis’ and confident, bold shapes that just work in the hand, in the pocket and to the eye. We therefore have high expectations from the Nokia N9′s AMOLED bevelled glass display,high-grade coloured plastic encasing,not to mention the slab’s abundance of personality.
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Iphone 4s
Iphone 4s review: From the outside the iPhone 4S looks identical to the iPhone 4. Inside, it’s anything but. Apple has resisted the urge to change design for the sake of change, and stuck with the same 3.5-inch Retina Display, glass and aluminum casing, and minimalistic aesthetic as before.
iPhone 4S may not look different from the outside, but inside it’s a very different beast. With its fifth generation smartphone, Apple is keen to show that the devil is truly in the details: the iPhone 4S is wickedly fast, fiendishly well equipped and ruthlessly threatening to its mobile rivals.
Below is a small video you may find interesting.
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BlackBerry Internet Services down
Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) have experienced problems again today (11 October 2011), following a prolonged outage yesterday.
Earlier today RIM claimed that all issues had been resolved.
There is no official confirmation yet from BlackBerry parent company Research In Motion (RIM) about the recurrent problems, but Vodacom said that they have seen an escalation in complaints over the last 30 minutes (from around 13:30).
“We’ve definitely seen an increase in complaints in the last 30 minutes or so. We’ll provide feedback as soon as possible,” said Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman.
MyBroadband has also received information that around 50% of BlackBerry users in the EMEA region are affected by the latest RIM network problems.
Internationally, users from around Europe, including Greece, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, have posted messages on the CrackBerry forum voicing their concerns about a new wave of BlackBerry downtime which seems to have begun around 12:30PM CAT. This is around the same time local users started reporting issues with BBM and BIS related services.
RIM South Africa could not immediately be reached for comment.
Update: RIM comment
“Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
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iPads, iPhones get Flash
Users of the Apple iPad and iPhone can now see Flash-based video content.
Adobe yesterday released Flash Media Server 4.5, which introduces support for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. It does this by letting broadcasters stream Flash-based video content in an Apple-derived format, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).
However, the advent of Flash Media Server 4.5 only enables Flash video streaming to iPhones and iPads. Flash-based games, animations and advertisements will still not work on such devices.
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Sony Tablet S and Tablet P
The feature rich tablets both utilize a 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, with the Tablet S sporting both WiFi and Bluetooth. Additionally, the Tablet P also features Wi Fi and Bluetooth, but will also be available with a 4G option from AT&T.
Take a look at some pictures of Sony’s new Tablet S and Tablet P. Sony’s latest devices both utilize the Android engine and feature distinctive designs. The Tablet S carries a wedge shape design and a 9.4-inch display, while the Tablet P features twin 5.5-inch displays that fold together.
Pre-orders for the Tablet S have opened now, with a 16 GB version coming in at $499 and a 32 GB version costing $599. Pricing will be aggressive as Sony aims to take on Apple’s popular iPad 2 when it lands on shelves next month. Sony has yet to release a price or release date for the Tablet
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Vodacom’s new mobile applications store
Vodacom Apps will support major mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile, making it relevant for the vast majority of data capable cellphones and smartphones.
Vodacom’s new mobile applications store will go live on 1 September 2011. Vodacom Apps will feature a catalogue of over 140,000 applications powered by Appia, one of the world’s largest open application marketplaces.
This event marks the launch of what Vodacom believes will be an entirely new local South African mobile application ecosystem, complete with the development of home-grown talent and revenue opportunities.
The store will feature a wide variety of apps in various categories such as games, travel and entertainment, business and professional, work and school, and phone tools.
“The launch of this app store is just the beginning. We’re building an entire community that will supply home-grown apps relevant to the South African environment,” said Pieter Uys, Vodacom Chief Executive Officer.
“With all the talent available in this country there’s no reason we can’t create our own application industry. The great part about this store is that it caters for so many users – in fact, more than 10 million cellphones on our network can run at least Java apps.”
Vodacom Apps users will be able to download free apps, for which standard data charges will apply. In the near future, Vodacom will introduce paid-for apps which customers can pay for using their airtime account. This means that all Vodacom customers can use the store without the need for a credit or debit card.
All Vodacom customers who wish to access Vodacom Apps can do so from 1 September by visiting http://vodacom.mobi/apps on their cellphones or from the Apps feature on Vodafone live!
“Vodacom’s commitment to supporting and further developing the South African apps market is being taken a step further today through an extensive Vodacom Developer Programme, launched in conjunction with the Vodacom Apps store,” Uys added.
The Vodacom Developer Programme will provide the developer community with technical and commercial support, including training, workshops and innovation incentives over the coming months.
This will further stimulate the local development of apps by allowing developers to upload their own developed applications and generate revenue from this.
Information about the Vodacom Developer Programme will be available from 1 September via:
http://www.vodacom.co.za/developer
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Google+ vs Facebook war
Google vs Facebook: Many factors will come into play to determine whether Google+ can successfully challenge Facebook in the social media arena, including the appeal of the new service and whether people are willing to leave an established network where they already have numerous connections.
Google is well positioned as an Internet brand with better customer satisfaction than Facebook, and is a larger company with more internal resources. However, Facebook is a high-growth company that’s likely on the verge of a public stock offering, meaning it has access both to a great deal of investor cash and top-flight employees hoping to cash in on that growth.
The most likely winner? Social media users, who will benefit from two strong companies battling to improve their products to either keep or win over customers.
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IT salaries in South Africa: Best paying
Best paying IT salaries: ActiveTechPros released their 2011 IT Salary and Skills Report recently, enabling IT professionals to compare their salary against their peers from different countries.
Latest activeTechPros IT Salary and Skills Report reveals which IT professionals in South Africa takes home the most money
The activeTechPros IT Salary & Skills Report compiles an extensive set of salary data and is published annually. The 2011 report is based on aggregated data for the period of 1 January – 31 December 2010.
The 2011 South African report is based on the feedback from 1,516 respondents, of which 1,337 work full-time at a company, 175 are consultants, and 4 are working part-time at a company.
22% of respondents had less than 5 years experience while 40% had between 5 and 10 years work experience, and 38% had more than a decade’s working experience.
Best paying jobs
IT Managers received the highest salaries, followed by Project Managers and System Developers.
The following table provides an overview of the salaries for IT professionals in South Africa according to job function and years of experience.
| Annual Salary by Job Function and Years of Work Experience | ||||
| Job Function | Less than 5 years (ZAR) |
5-10 years (ZAR) | More than 10 years (ZAR) |
Average (ZAR) |
| IT Management | 382,744 | 394,355 | 515,993 | 464,763 |
| Project Management | 214,840 | 311,247 | 465,057 | 342,435 |
| Systems Development | 174,132 | 303,736 | 402,155 | 292,737 |
| Communications | 163,981 | 247,125 | 352,941 | 258,688 |
| Support | 99,849 | 159,608 | 220,119 | 146,598 |
| Administration | 139,245 | 244,173 | 350,928 | 249,797 |
| Other IT Professionals | 162,114 | 333,300 | 388,444 | 306,300 |
| Average | 168,355 | 287,648 | 433,622 | 312,295 |
