For the second consecutive year, social media apps have dominated free downloads on all three major app stores in South Africa: Google Play, the Apple App Store, and the Windows Store.
This is one of the key findings of the South African Social Media Landscape 2015 study by technology research organisation World Wide Worx and media analytics company Fuseware.
The headline findings released in September showed steady growth for most social networks, but the full report, released today, reveals how entrenched their mobile apps have become in South Africa.
The study is based on access to consumer data from seven major social networks, three app stores, and a corporate survey conducted among more than a hundred of South Africa's leading brands.
WhatsApp is particularly dominant, topping the list of both iOS and Android downloads. Only in the Windows Store does it drop, down to third position, with its parent company Facebook in number one position. Facebook is second in free iOS downloads and third in Android.
Facebook-owned apps fill the next two positions on iOS too, with Facebook Messenger and Instagram rounding out the top four. The Google Play store has the same top four, in a slightly different order, with Facebook Messenger at two and Instagram also in fourth place.
Windows Phone has a slightly different mix, with the Microsoft podcast app in second, its cloud storage app OneDrive in fourth place, and the Microsoft-owned Skype in fifth. Facebook Messenger is sixth, which gives Facebook three of the top six spots for free Windows Store downloads.
Rank | Google Play | Apple App Store | Windows Store |
1 | |||
2 | Facebook Messenger | Microsoft podcast app | |
3 | Facebook Messenger | ||
4 | OneDrive |
"It can be argued that Facebook currently owns mobile - but not necessarily its revenue," says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. "Games completely dominate the top 10 lists for highest grossing apps on iOS and Android, filling the entire top 10 on each, as well as the top eight in the Windows Store."
Fuseware MD Mike Wronski points out smartphones have not been entirely taken over by entertainment impulses: "The occasional utility app does intrude in the list of most downloaded paid apps. The serious professional and business users of smartphones still want to combine their social and work lives on their handsets."
The report shows Facebook has grown by 8% in the past year, from 12 million to 13 million, and Twitter by 12%, from 6.6 million to 7.4 million users. Video-sharing platform YouTube increased its user base marginally more, with a 15% rise from 7.2 million to 8.28 million users. The biggest growth has come from photo-sharing network Instagram, which rose 133%, from 1.1 million to 2.68 million.
All numbers and growth mentioned are specific to South Africa.
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