SA underpinned by the app

Consumers are taking control of their own conversations, says Dione Sankar, head of cellphone banking and messaging at big four bank FNB.

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The app has become the single most significant tool driving the mobile economy in SA.

This is according a new study by World Wide Worx - Mobility 2014 - which examines online trends on an annual basis. The Mobile Internet in SA 2014 report reveals the use of apps on phones has shot up from 24% of adult cellphone users in cities and towns in mid-2012, to 43% in late 2013.

Backed by First National Bank (FNB), the Mobility 2014 study shows a tipping point in the use of mobile apps was reached this year, with more than half of urban cellphone users (51%) now using these tools. The rural market is also growing at a rapid rate, says World Wide Worx - with its 27% usage level surpassing the overall market of 18 months before.

While data use on phones now represents 16% of the average user's mobile budget - up from 12% in mid-2012 - cellphone users are also increasingly turning to WiFi hotspots for mobile Internet access. A relatively low proportion of respondents (14%) currently use WiFi hotspots, but World Wide Worx says this is expected to increase to 26% during 2014. Consequently, says the research company, both mobile network data use and Internet access via hotspots is expected to boom.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says the rapidly growing penetration of smartphones and the increased ease of use of the Internet on feature phones have changed the way SA communicates. "While SMS remains pervasive, new communication channels are being opened up to the mass market through both social media and instant messaging (IM) apps."

Research further shows the most dramatic growth has been seen in IM, particularly in the uptake of WhatsApp, which more than doubled its penetration in the past 18 months, from 26% to 53%. "A further 10% of cellphone users say they will use it in the coming year. Facebook Chat is the second most popular chat tool with 45% of respondents using it, followed by Mxit, remaining steady at 25%, and BBM rising from 17% to 21%."

The survey, conducted among adult cellphone users living in cities and towns in SA, also underlines the powerful growth of Twitter, which is now being used by 20% of this market, up from 12% in mid-2012. This figure is expected to rise to at least 30% in 2014, says World Wide Worx.

Dione Sankar, head of cellphone banking and messaging at FNB, says these findings bear testament to the overt trend of consumers taking control of their own conversations - choosing when, where and how they want to communicate. "This poses a great challenge to the business world, but we also see it as the greatest opportunity yet to get closer to our customers."

The Mobility 2014 project comprises two reports, namely The Mobile Consumer in SA 2014, comprising cellphone usage and mobile banking trends; and The Mobile Internet in SA 2014, exploring online trends.

It is based on face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of South African adult cellphone users living in cities and towns. Fieldwork was conducted by Dashboard Marketing Intelligence in late 2013.