New data confirms mobile web use booming in Africa

A slew of new data released by the web-browser company Opera has confirmed the general perception that mobile web browsing is being adopted at an astonishing rate across the African continent.

According to their State of the Mobile Web Report for the year ending June 2010, South Africa still comes out on top in terms of mobile web usage, but significant growth has been reported everywhere. South Africa recorded page per view growth of 129% over the last 12 months and unique user growth of 94% over the same period.

Looking at the continent as a whole sees mobile web usage surging by 182% in the year period, while unique users are up by 124%, and the amount of data downloaded was over 160% higher than it was at the same time last year.

While coming off an admittedly small base, Sudan has recorded a jaw-dropping growth rate of 4645% in page views, and 1200% growth in unique users. The next highest growth came from Ghana, with 916% more page views and 498% more unique users over the 12 months.

Some other interesting statistics from the report include:

• Kenya reported the highest number of page views per user, with each user averaging 639 page views per month.
• Nokia remains the most popular handset brand in Africa, followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG.
• All 12 countries surveyed recorded Google and Facebook as the most popular mobile web destinations.

Jon von Tetchzner, the co-founder of Opera Software states that “Beyond the numbers, we see that access to the web is reshaping the economic, political and social development of the continent.”