Facebook has 31.5 million users in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, statistics released by the social network showed yesterday, with the majority using mobile devices to access their profiles.
Facebook opened its first African office in Johannesburg in June, as the continent's growing population and relatively low levels of Internet access present a large untapped market for the social network to earn advertising revenue.
The numbers, the first Facebook has published for Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation; and Kenya, East Africa's most developed, show the two nations as important entry points on a continent of nearly one billion people.
More than 90% of all monthly active users (MAUs) within the three regions use mobile phones to like, share and upload content on the social network.
"Mobile is not a trend; it's the fastest adoption of disruptive technology in the history of communication," said Nunu Ntshingila, Facebook's head of Africa, in a statement.
Facebook said its active user population in Africa grew 20% to 120 million in June from 100 million in September last year. A large portion of these users were in North Africa.
In August, the social network recorded one billion people logging into its platform in a single day, from across the world. The site on average has 968 million daily active users (DAUs).
Globally, Facebook DAUs increase 17% year-on-year.
User stats for Q2 2015:
DAUs | Mobile DAUs | MAUs | Mobile MAUs | Population* | |
South Africa | 7.3 million | 7 million | 12 million | 12 million | 52.98 million |
Kenya | 2.2 million | 2.1 million | 4.5 million | 4.3 million | 44.35 million |
Nigeria | 7.1 million | 6.9 million | 15 million | 15 million | 173.6 million |
*Population stats according the World Bank (2013)
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