More South Africans use Facebook than watch TV

A new survey finds that more South Africans are likely to have used Facebook in the last week than watched TV.

Cape Town based media agency, Limelight Consulting, has unpacked the latest social media behaviours in South Africa in its Media Usage Report, having surveyed 3,370 respondents.

The report found that 72% of digitally-connected adult South Africans use Facebook daily while more people have used Facebook in the last week than watched television.

Young Adults, aged 18 – 24 are 13% more likely to make use of Snapchat on a daily basis, with Instagram the second most used daily platform.

Adults aged 25-24 however, are 31% more likely to make use of Facebook and 56% less likely to use Snapchat.

Additional findings:

• Women are 19% more likely to use Facebook daily and men are 23% more likely to use Snapchat daily
• Young adults, 18 to 24 years, are 8% LESS likely to use Facebook but more likely to engage on all other social media platforms
• Adults 25 to 34 years are 31% more likely to use Facebook daily
• Most consumers listen to live radio broadcasts at home in the morning

Most popular social networks in South Africa:

Past 7 Day usage indicates that more people used Facebook (55%) than watched TV (52%).  More people said they had read an article online (33%) in the last 7 days, than a magazine (30%).

The reach of new media forms is expected to continue to increase, Limelight Consulting said.

Traditional media vs social media platforms:

Read: The biggest social media networks in South Africa in 2016