Facebook has become the leading messaging service after its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in February, a new survey has revealed.
The Effective Measure "South African Mobile Report", which is a survey of desktop users' attitudes and uses of mobile phones, found that the popular social media tool has 77% market share in the local instant messaging space.
The survey included 5 113 desktop Internet users in SA, looking at several aspects smart phone ownership, consumers' purchasing intentions, and brands' market share.
Effective Measures also noted nine out of 10 South African desktop Internet users access the World Wide Web through their smartphones. "Social media is the third most popular activity by South Africans on their smartphones, after instant messaging and e-mail," the survey found.
Some 50.9% of smartphone users have access to more than a GB of data on their handsets, the report notes.
As predicted, the use of messaging and social media has increased slightly since March, the report for the period May to June says. It also notes that the handset of choice is Samsung, followed by BlackBerry and Nokia.
Since its March report, Samsung has overtaken BlackBerry, which has seen its market share drop, along with that of Nokia, Effective Measures found. It notes Samsung also leads the tablet space, followed by Apple.
Most people surveyed - at 35.2% - hang on to their smartphones for between one and three years, while 29.3% keep them for more than three years.
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