Twitter in SA ‘much bigger than thought’

RECENT research on the cellphone habits of South Africans showed Twitter was being used by a lot more than previously thought, with at least 1-million people believed to be using the service, according to World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck.



Mr Goldstuck believes Twitter will be "bigger than MXit and Facebook", which has implications for cellphone companies, data providers and businesses trying to understand and better use new media to promote products.


The power of this medium has already been seen with the uprisings in Egypt and Iran, and recently when former president Nelson Mandela was ill, when Twitter made it possible for the public to get minute-by-minute up updates despite official information being withheld.





Speaking at the presentation of the Mobility 2011 research project, conducted by World Wide Worx and backed by First National Bank, Mr Goldstuck said the level of support for Twitter had caught researchers by surprise.


"We believed initially, based on people whose profiles identified them as South Africans, that Twitter had about 100000 local followers, but the Mobility 2011 research project found that at least 6% of cellphone users surveyed used the service, and 23% said they would use it in the future," he said.



At the moment MXit has 24% of the market and Facebook 22%. "Twitter is easier to sign up to and use than Facebook."


He said Twitter was expected to almost catch up to MXit in the coming year.



"Interest in Twitter is probably driven by the massive media attention it gets.


"DJ Fresh has the most followers in the country, about 100000 people. He is constantly promoting it on his show."



The Mobility study found that South Africans’ cellphone habits have changed dramatically over the past year, with increased use of smartphones, mobile applications and mobile internet entering the mainstream market.


The study, representing about 20-million South Africans aged 16 and above, found 39% of urban South Africans and 27% of rural users over the age of 16 are now browsing the internet on phones. This means that about 6-million South Africans now have internet access on their phones.



Mr Goldstuck said the most dramatic shift was the increased use of e-mail in rural areas and its growth among urban users, which has been accompanied by a drop in SMSing, which is expensive compared with data.


"Urban use is rising, from 10% in 2009 to 27% at the end of last year," he said. "While the percentage growth among rural users is lower, the fact that it was almost nonexistent a year before means 12% penetration reported for 2010 indicates mobile e-mail is becoming a mainstream tool across the population."