When it comes to social media usage stats, African countries usually fly below the radar. However, Africa’s southern most nation, South Africa currently ranks number 29th on Facebook’s global user list, and demonstrates a number of similarities with much larger using countries.
The recent South African Friendship 2.0 survey found that the average South African Facebook user is in their 30’s, employed full time, and describe themselves as sociable and outgoing. The survey sampled South Africans aged 16 years or older.
With a massive 82 percent, Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in South Africa. Again, South Africa ranks number 29 on Facebook’s global usage statistics (by country), and has an estimated 2.6 million users per month that generate over 1.1 billion page views. Over half of Facebooking South Africans access the site via their mobile devices, 1.58 million. To put this in perspective, of those surveyed, only 18 percent responded that they have a MySpace profile.
From here, popularity numbers make a steep decline. While not specifically a social networking site, YouTube take the number 2 spot for South Africans, garnering a 32 percent response rate, South African mobile IM service MXit taking 29 percent, with Twitter landing a close 28 percent.
South African broadband services provider, and sponsor of the survey MWeb Connect’s general manager Carolyn Holgate comments, “Social networks have become the garden fence of the 21st century and are used for the same purposes as community meeting places. We’re at the end of the early adoption phase, which was dominated by young people, and social networking is now a mainstream activity enjoyed and used by all age groups, particularly those in their 30s.”
Additional findings from the Friendship 2.0 survey:
- 74% go online specifically to visit social networking sites
- 74% access Facebook at least once a day
- 25% of participants have met more friends online than they have in real life
- 24% have gone on a face-to-face date with someone they met online
- 36% have used a pseudonym on-line
- 36% have used the Internet to find out what a past partner is doing
- 21% have experienced a breach of their privacy on the Internet
- 16% use social platforms to promote their business
- 37% believe they spend too much time online
The Friendship 2.0 survey, sponsored by South Africa’s MWeb Connect can be found here. Download the Friendship 2.0 survey results here (pdf).
[note: data sourced from MWeb Connect and Times Live. MWeb places South Africa in position number 29, however, Nick Burcher's Facebook stats place South Africa in the number 23 slot.]
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