South African school dropout takes on Google
Young South African entrepreneur vows to fight search engine giant's legal threat to jobs website
One is among the world's most powerful corporations, a behemoth with a market capitalisation of US$250 billion. The other is a loss-making website owned by a school dropout on a computer bought from a pawn shop for US$68.
It's Google v Doogle.
The unlikely duel has come about after a young South African entrepreneur received a letter threatening legal action because his site's name and logo are too similar to Google's.
Andries Maree van der Merwe, who turns 23 this week, vowed to fight all the way in what his lawyer describes as a "David and Goliath" contest.
Van der Merwe, from Middelburg in Mpumalanga province, set up Doogle after dropping out of school at 16 to look for a job. While working as a newspaper vendor, he hit upon the idea of a site to help the unemployed.
"I sold newspapers on street corners and people told me what was wrong," he recalled. "They wanted a place where they go to find a job."