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YouTube trumps Twitter

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 16 Sept 2014
YouTube trumps Twitter as the second largest social media platform in SA.
YouTube trumps Twitter as the second largest social media platform in SA.

SA's social media users are increasingly gravitating towards visual channels, with YouTube and Instagram expected to see the highest growth in the local market over the coming year.

This is according to World Wide Worx and Fuseware, which today presented findings from their latest social media research, in the SA Social Media Landscape 2015. Research was undertaken between August 2013 and August 2014.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says the growth of visual content is the hallmark of the shift in social media the country is currently seeing.

With 7.2 million monthly active users, YouTube is now the second largest social media platform in SA, 4.6 million users less than local leader Facebook - but 600 000 users stronger than popular micro-blog site Twitter.

Instagram has seen South African user numbers climb from 680 000 last year, to 1.1 million this year. Goldstuck points out that, while this is near the bottom of the social media user table (topping only Pinterest), it represents a 65% spike since last year.

Platform face-off

At this stage, Facebook is still king in SA, with 11.8 million "Facebookers", equally divided into male and female users. That is 22% of the country's population. Of these, 9.2 million access the social network on their mobile phones, with the Nokia Asha and BlackBerry Curve being the most widely used phones for access.

Twitter, reveals the research, is a maturing market, with 6.6 million users as at August 2014 - compared to 5.5 million in August 2013 and 2.4 million in 2012. Some 85% of tweets sent by South Africans are from mobile devices.

Goldstuck points out, while Twitter experienced slower growth than it has in the past, it is still at a healthy 20% and engagement among users is very high.

Home-grown social media network Mxit is still hanging in there, Goldstuck points out. Despite global players stealing much of its thunder over the past years, Mxit currently has 4.9 million monthly active users in SA - ahead of LinkedIn and Instagram. Some 65% of Mxit users are between the ages of 18 and 35, and 55% are in living standards measurement groups six to eight.

Engagement on the Mxit platform is high and download activity alive and well, says Goldstuck. An average Mxit user logs on five times and spends 105 minutes per day on the platform. LinkedIn is "still linking", with 3.8 million registered users in SA. This is up 40% from 2.7 million in 2013.

Interest in Pinterest, meanwhile, is on the decline. In SA, the latest figures for users of the "visual discovery" tool show a sharp drop - from 910 000 in 2013, to 840 000 users now.

World Wide Worxs' latest social media statistics for SA:

Social media landscape 2015

Facebook

11.8 million

YouTube

7.2 million

Twitter

6.6 million

Mxit

4.9 million

LinkedIn

3.8 million

Instagram

1.1 million

Pinterest

840 000

Google+

Unknown

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