South Africans internet users spend a third more time online than Americans – and almost double than Germans, a new report found.
Social media marketing platform Hootsuite’s Global State of Digital in a report published recently found that the typical South African internet user spent an average of 8 minutes 23 seconds on the internet per day, compared to 7 minutes 2 second in Singapore and 6 minutes 38 seconds in the US, the report found.
In Russia, users spent roughly 6 minutes 29 seconds on the internet, 6 minutes 4 seconds in Italy, 5 minutes 51 seconds in Canada, 5 minutes 46 seconds in Britain, and 4 minutes 37 seconds in Germany.
South African internet users lag those in the Philippines, however, who spend more than 10 minute a day online. Brazilian and Thai internet users also spend more time online than South Africans.
Globally, the average time spent on the internet daily decreased by 1.7% to 6 minutes 42 seconds, after five years of consecutive growth.
South Africans cellphone owners also spend a long time on the web every day – an average of 3 minutes 30 seconds, compared to the global average of 3 minutes 14 minutes.
But South Africa’s internet penetration remains low – with only 54% of the population connected to the internet, compared to the global average of 57%.
Germany has a 98% internet penetration, the US 95% and Japan 94%.
The report found that 40% of South African internet users had active social media accounts.
WhatsApp was South Africa’s most active social media platform with 90% of internet users accessing the platform, followed by Youtube at 84%, Facebook at 82%, Facebook messenger at 57% and Instagram at 54%.
Twitter was South Africa’s sixth most active social media platform at 42%, followed by LinkedIn at 38%.
Both Facebook and Instagram saw growth of more than 4% in South African users the past year, while Twitter saw a significant drop of 27%.
Some 48% of South African internet users stream content online, and 11% likely to watch esports tournaments.
