World cup hits online investor traffic

Rob Strangroom, who worked as a corporate advisor for 14 year before switching to online investor relations and shareholder communication, said in a posting on his blog that his company had "recorded, across the board, declines in investor traffic in the 23 websites" it manages.

"We had speculated that the World Cup might increase traffic. How naive we were," noted Strangroom, who said, however, that traffic to the FIFA website had gone up during the tournament hosted by South Africa.

Positive outcome from World Cup

But he was confident of a positive outturn from the World Cup through long term effects on the enhancement of Africa's image.

"I think that African leaders are cursing themselves for not taking their soccer more seriously and realising that an event such as this is the biggest PR event they could possibly ask for," he said.

"Consider Ghana. The most deserving African nation of anything good: A decent democracy. A nice people. An expensive airport. They did not deserve the idiocy of soccer's rules that saw them out of the World Cup. Barack Obama visited them. Ghana is king in Africa. I love Ghana.

"But their online investor relations are way behind the rest of Africa? An opportunity lost? Yes. Definitely," said Strangroom.