SA's mobile Internet explosion, the falling cost and proliferation of devices and data, and the ability visual content has to transcend literacy and language barriers, are all factors that will contribute to the country's social media and online use shift as 2015 dawns.
This is according to analysts and comes in the wake of World Wide Worx and Fuseware's latest social media research, which revealed Google-owned video platform YouTube this year overtook Twitter to become SA's second most popular social media platform.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says SA has this year seen the beginning of joining the global visual revolution in online usage. "The global rise of video is now making itself felt here. Once the cost of mobile data comes down for the emerging smartphone market, video will become a dominant medium, strongly supported by other visual media."
Instagram, bought by social network giant Facebook last year, is another channel that shows huge growth potential on the local front, with photo- and video-sharing expected to see considerable local growth next year, along with YouTube.
Data driver
The global rise of video has been tagged as the biggest data use driver - ahead of both e-commerce and social media. Ovum analyst Richard Hurst says YouTube has been at the forefront of this movement since its launch in 2005.
Hurst says, in SA, there are "pockets of uptake" - but the real driver will be when the service starts to gain a mass appeal among local users. The falling cost of mobile devices and emergence of more affordable mobile data, he says, will dictate local video content traction.
ICT veteran Adrian Schofield says high prices undoubtedly inhibit growth. "I think we need a quantum shift in provision of the connection, because the demand for high speed data will only increase, as more high quality content becomes available."
Dave Caputo, CEO of broadband network solutions company Sandvine, predicted in November last year that Africa would be the world's fastest video adopter, with operators expected to respond with creative device- and application-based service tiers.
Schofield notes the global shift to video has been due to the reduced cost of data bundles making it feasible to up- and download video material.
Locally, says Hurst, "one has to agree that video in whatever form is gaining traction in our local social media market". He says the key driver has been the ease of being able to post or share video content in the form of clips, via a variety of platforms.
Broad appeal
As for the YouTube appeal specifically, BMI-TechKnowledge (BMI-T) director Brian Neilson says the platform's growth is simply because video is such an immersive content experience, and YouTube has the lion's share of it.
"Cat videos, yes, but also a rich archive of things like music videos (even some from the 60s and 70s), stand-up comedy, documentaries, really useful stuff like 'how to' do anything and catch-up clips on what the Economic Freedom Fighters [party] is up to in Parliament. Kids' stuff too - anyone for Barbie in the Dreamhouse perhaps?
"For many people, YouTube is more engaging than spending an evening watching TV. And, of course, it does no harm that it is so easy for the content to go viral, given the ease of distribution to mobile phones with YouTube app or on browser."
Clinton Jacobs, analyst at BMI-T says it is both the broad appeal of YouTube and improved underlying connectivity that have facilitated growth, as has the ease of distribution through mobile. In fact, says Neilson, "the mobile Internet explosion would probably be the main reason for the renewed growth spurt in SA".
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