09.26.08
Mobile Web in South Africa
With the iPhone having just been launched in South Africa last night, there is many a happy technophile running around this morning with, arguably, the world’s hottest gadget.
I’m a bit of a Blackberry man myself, and having upgraded not that long ago, it will be a while yet (at least 20 months) until I will have the enviable task of deciding on a device for the next two years of my life – so it will be interesting to see where the iPhone stands then.
But I digress, what this post is really about, is the state of the mobile web in South Africa. Vincent Hoffman over at Submarine wrote a good post about the latest data released by Opera in their recent report on the State of the Mobile Web.
Not surprisingly, the report shows that mobile web usage continues to grow in terms of the number of unique users, page views and volume of data being transferred. Perhaps the most interesting bit of news is that South Africa now ranks sixth in the world for mobile web usage (displacing the US).
This is perhaps not surprising when one considers mobile penetration versus fixed lines and internet via PC (thanks Telkom).
So what are mobile web users looking at on their phones? The Opera Report lists the top sites in South Africa as the following:
- facebook.com
- google.com
- wikipedia.org (back on the list)
- gamejump.com (down from 3)
- yahoo.com (down from 4)
- mxit.co.za
- peperonity.com (up from 8 )
- capetown.gumtree.co.za (up from 10)
- amazon.com (new)
- twilightwap.com (new)
It’s a mixed bag, although, not unexpectedly, social networking takes the top place.
I suppose this list says a fair deal about South African mobile web users’ online habits. The report as a whole though, I feel, just serves as further proof that this is a rapidly expanding channel in South Africa – that presents a number of exciting ways for marketers to reach customers where they are.