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SOUTH AFRICA - HOW MANY USE WEB SITES AND WHO ARE THEY?
South Africa is the largest internet market in sub-Saharan Africa. The release
of a survey by Nielsen/Netratings illustrates the increasing importance of its
users. Arthur Goldstuck looks at what the available research is able to
identify: most used sites and patterns of usage. The socio-demographic data
provides useful clues about what may happen in the rest of the continent.
South Africa would probably provide Internet researchers with an ideal case
study on the demographic patterns of internet use in developing countries.
Because of the large disparities in socio-economic levels, internet access is
directly associated with economic access. As such, most Internet users in South
Africa are relatively well-educated and relatively affluent. Of around
2.6-million Internet users measured by Media Africa, close to 1.4-million have
dial-up access from the office, indicating that they are relatively well-paid
white-collar workers. More than 800 000 have dial-up accounts at home or at
small businesses (with many of these accounts providing additional access).
The web traffic habits of these users have been analysed for the first time by
Nielsen//NetRatings, which this weekend released in-depth research on the home
surfing behaviour of the South African Internet community for June 2001.
Nielsen//NetRatings estimates that there are just over 2,5 million people who
have access to the Internet from work or home in South Africa. This excludes
those who surf the web from internet cafes, WAP-enabled cellphones, and from
academic institutions.
Their June 2001 findings show that South African Internet users visit an average
of 20 sites over a number of sessions, which is on the high side globally. The
global average is 15 sites, taking into account the habits of Internet users in
Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US. The US site average is 10.
"This is characteristic of an Internet community that is building rapidly and
has yet to reach maturity," says Sue Bolton, sales and marketing director in
South Africa for Nielsen//NetRatings. "South Africans are still hunting around
for the sites which fulfil their needs. Our experience in other countries shows
that over time, they will settle on a smaller selection of sites."
South African Web properties made a strong showing against well-established
global Internet brands, accounting for four out of the top 10 properties - the
M-Web portal, Absa Bank, Johnnic e-Ventures and iafrica.com. The Top 10
ranking reads:
1. MSN
2. M-Web portal (includes Supersportzone and Daily Mail & Guardian)
3. Yahoo!
4. Absa Bank (currently operating the largest free ISP)
5. Microsoft
6. Johnnic e-Ventures (with sites such as Ananzi, Sunday Times, and MTN)
7. AOL Time Warner
8. Lycos Network
9. Tiscali (World Online, the second largest paid-for ISP)
10. iafrica.com
These figures correlate only loosely with the findings of the Audit Bureau of
Internet Standards, which collates audited traffic statistics from media and
related sites in South Africa. The ABIS top 20, with page impressions
reported for the first quarter of 2001, reads:
1. MTN SMS.com (Johnnic) 104,197,343
2. iafrica.com 17,912,075
3. Webmail 15,365,345
4. Independent Online 5,664,080
5. Woza (presently defunct, in search of investor) 5,501,064
6. Ananzi (Johnnic) 4,976,702
7. News24.co.za 4,932,202
8. Junkmail 3,944,624
9. Supersportzone (M-Web) 3,228,362
10. Sharenet 2,682,334
11. Daily Mail & Guardian (M-Web) 2,296,802
12. Job Navigator 2,024,218
13. PSG-Online 1,849,156
14. Careerjunction 1,428,694
15. Sunday Times (Johnnic) 1,357,267
16. Moneymax 1,132,342
17. Easyinfo 1,061,410
18. MoneyWeb 808,337
19. IT Web 807,085
20. CARtoday.com 727,033
While these statistics are often controversial - with, for instance, page
refreshes sometimes reported as page impressions - their audited nature makes
them as close to a precise measure as it is possible to get. Market research
among a sample of a few thousand users, by its nature, provides only an estimate
of traffic, and would have to be read in conjunction with the ABIS findings.
The intention of the ABIS statistics is to provide the advertising industry with
a formal basis for making media planning decisions, and it is thus strongly
focused on media sites, with classifieds and jobs sites tending to be the main
outsiders. Naturally, foreign sites are excluded, and this is where the
Nielsen//Netratings research comes into its own.
"In nearly every country where Nielsen//NetRatings has launched its service, we
see global power players MSN, Yahoo! and Microsoft at the top of the Web
properties list," Bolton said. "This is due to their successful strategy of
providing localised content in each country. South Africans however, show a
strong loyalty to local players as well."
Bolton also noted that the most visited categories of sites in South Africa were
search engines and portals, finance, insurance and investment sites and telecom
and Internet services sites.
Nielsen//NetRatings found that South Africans are connected to the Internet for,
on average, four hours and 32 minutes a month. This is one of the shortest
monthly averages of the 27 markets measured by Nielsen//NetRatings, with only
Finnish and Irish users spending less time online. The global average is closer
to nine hours a month.
The length of each surfing session in South Africa is 26 minutes, which is
similar to those in the UK (28 minutes) and the US (30 minutes), but there are
fewer sessions per month. South Africans surf the Net on average 10 times a
month, compared to the average American’s 19 sessions.
The local advertising industry has given Nielsen//NetRatings a lukewarm
response, largely based on the fact that, due to a smaller spread of users, it
is almost impossible to drill down into its demographic findings on visitors to
smaller sites. Once again, it may be necessary to read its findings in
conjunction with other demographic research, such as Webchek’s 1999 Web User
survey and research conducted by MSN in 2000 and WinWin Technologies in 2001.
MSN WEB USERS SURVEY PROVIDES ADDITIONAL SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC INFO
The MSN survey, which drew more than 16,000 responses, showed a demographic
picture that included these snippets:
- Roughly one third of the participants fell within each of the 18-24 (34%) and
25-34 (34%) age categories. Approximately one sixth fell in the 35-44 (16%)
band. Only a small fraction of the respondents were younger than 18 (3%), or
older than 44 (13%).
- Slightly more than half (56%) of the survey respondents were male (44% were
female). If these figures are compared to the gender distribution of the general
South African population (48% male, 52% female), we see a slight bias in favour
of men.
- The geographic distribution of South African Internet users is similar to the
general distribution of the South African population, with a bias towards major
urban centres - Gauteng and the Western Cape.
- In the US, almost all (94%) of on-line purchasers have at least a high school
education, compared to only three quarters (71%) of the general population. The
results of the South African survey reveal an even higher slant towards educated
users - Internet users are almost twice as likely as the average South African
to have a Matric-level education and six times more likely to have completed
some form of higher education.
- As well as being well-educated, the average South African Internet user is in
full-time (53%) or part-time (7%) employment or is self-employed/contracting
(15%). Only a relatively small number of Internet users are unemployed (2%),
homemakers (3%) or retired (1%). A high percentage of respondents (19%) are
students. These results mean that South African Internet users are twice as
likely to be employed as average South Africans.
- Almost a quarter (24%) of the respondents have a monthly income of R10,000 or
more, with half of this group (11%) in the R15,000+ category. Only 7% have an
income above R10,000, making Internet users three to four times more likely to
fall into this high income bracket than the average person.
- More than two thirds (67%) of Internet users live in a house with the
remainder split equally between flats (17%) and townhouses (15%). Less than half
(40%) of the respondents own property, but there is a clear split between
married couples and single people. Three quarters (71%) of married couples own
property, but only 16% of single people are property owners.
- Internet users are characterised by high disposable incomes. More than one in
ten (11%) have more than R5,000 left each month after fixed expenses and a
further 39% have between R1,000 and R5,000 left. Only one quarter (26%) had less
than R500 of disposable income with the remaining quarter (24%) having between
R500 and R1,000 available to spend
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