{"id":46019,"date":"2013-09-16T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=46019"},"modified":"2013-09-17T08:53:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T06:53:01","slug":"is-whatsapp-the-biggest-im-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/46019\/is-whatsapp-the-biggest-im-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Is WhatsApp the biggest IM in SA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WhatsApp<\/a> is \u201cbigger than everyone else\u201d in the South African market, a spokesperson for the mobile instant messaging (IM) service has told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

This follows a recent article comparing the available statistics for the number of active users of various messaging services in South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, WhatsApp isn\u2019t willing to disclose its active user statistics on a per-country basis, but there are a number of indicators of the platform\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

Firstly, WhatsApp is the most popular free app on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, and the Windows Phone Marketplace – outranking even Facebook.<\/p>\n

World Wide Worx<\/a> recently ranked Facebook<\/a> as the largest social network in South Africa with 9.4-million active users in August 2013.<\/p>\n

No less than 87% of Facebook users in South Africa access the service from their phones, World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck<\/a> noted in a recent press release issued with Fuseware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Vodacom<\/a> and Cell C<\/a> have revealed that WhatsApp has shown tremendous growth over the last few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatsApp has significantly more users on our network than any other IM platform and we\u2019ve seen a pickup in growth in the last two months,\u201d a Vodacom spokesperson told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

Cell C said that it has seen WhatsApp usage increase massively over the last two years.<\/p>\n

Neither network operator was able to provide specific usage or growth figures, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

MTN<\/a> and Telkom Mobile<\/a> were asked for their observations but did not provide feedback by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, and most surprisingly, was unofficial and unconfirmed information received from a knowledgeable source which suggested that WhatsApp is possibly double the size of Mxit<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n

This means that the number active WhatsApp users in South Africa could be as high as 15-million – and feedback from World Wide Worx boss, Arthur Goldstuck provided a lower amount of around 9.4-million users.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on their trajectories over the past year, WhatsApp will have overtaken Mxit and will probably also overtake Facebook as the most popular social tool in SA,\u201d Goldstuck told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Social service<\/td>\n2013 users<\/td>\n2012 users<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
WhatsApp *<\/td>\n15-million?<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Facebook<\/td>\n9.4-million<\/td>\n6.8-million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mxit<\/td>\n7.4-million<\/td>\n6.9-million (9.5-million using 90-day metric)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twitter<\/td>\n5.5-million<\/td>\n2.43-million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BBM *<\/td>\n4.7-million (94% of users)<\/td>\n3.3-million (97% of users)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LinkedIn<\/td>\n2.7-million<\/td>\n1.93-million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
WeChat *<\/td>\n(unofficial data places it ahead of 2go)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2go<\/td>\n1.1-million<\/td>\n1.5-million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Google+<\/td>\n466,828<\/td>\n466,828<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
* Unofficial, or based on estimates<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

WhatsApp’s rise<\/h3>\n

According to Goldstuck there are a couple of possible explanations for WhatsApp’s sudden rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cNokia continues to push WhatsApp heavily, and has even included a WhatsApp button in one of its new phones,\u201d Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatsApp is one of the big beneficiaries of the continued popularity of mid-level and low-end Nokias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldstuck explained that as people at the lower end of the market buy new phones, they are presented with WhatsApp as a core option.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, there appears to be a mass migration from BBM to WhatsApp,\u201d Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

He said that, although BBM remains strong, practically every single BlackBerry<\/a> user is now also installing WhatsApp \u201cto ensure they can extend the BBM experience to contacts that have either moved away from BlackBerry or don\u2019t have Blackberry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldstuck also highlighted that\u00a0 the marketing campaign WeChat has embarked on in South Africa may have also had an impact on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavy marketing of WeChat occurred in the same period as this huge leap for WhatsApp, and I have a strong suspicion that, with WhatsApp already being a known brand, people confused the two,\u201d Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

He said that there is a strong possibility that people picking up on the WeChat marketing downloaded WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot necessarily by mistake, but because they thought it was just another version of WhatsApp,\u201d Goldstuck said.\u00a0\u201cThe perils of naming conventions that try to stick to the mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on MyBroadband<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More on social media<\/h3>\n

SA social media stats revealed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Messaging app battle heats up<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

10 facts about social media in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The truth about SA Facebook stats<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Can the whole world be connected by 2020?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to WhatsApp, it is the biggest mobile instant messaging service in South Africa – and while exact figures aren’t available, industry insiders seem to agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":46020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[843,26,2118,607],"class_list":["post-46019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-arthur-goldstuck","tag-headline","tag-whatsapp","tag-world-wide-worx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46019"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46062,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46019\/revisions\/46062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}