Smartphone usage in South Africa is growing at an incredible rate. The latest research report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed a record 84% growth in smartphone shipments in 2014, with smartphones now enjoying 41.9% mobile market share in Africa.
The growth in smartphone numbers has largely been attributed to the decrease in the price of these devices which are powered by Google's Android operating system, with both Vodacom and MTN now selling Android powered smartphone devices for less than R800. These developments have resulted in massive growth in our smartphone audience on Soccer Laduma, where our audience have previously been mainly feature phone driven.
To illustrate just how fast smartphone usage is growing, we looked at our Soccer Laduma's mobile statistics on Google Analytics between 2013 to 2015 and this is what we found: In May 2013, 54% of our mobile traffic was coming from Feature phone devices – with only 8.33% coming from Smartphone devices (excluding BlackBerry).
Mobile Operating Platforms on Soccer Laduma: May 2013
Fast forward to May 2015 and the numbers looks noticeably different. Feature phones are no longer the dominant platform on Soccer Laduma – with only 32% of traffic now coming from feature phones, while Smartphone usage has increased to 42%.
The growth has largely been driven by the Android operating system, which is now the biggest mobile platform on Soccer Laduma. This can also attributed to the massive growth in Android globally and locally, with most of the affordable Smartphone devices in the market being powered by Android. On Soccer Laduma Android has grown from just 6% in 2013, to driving 36% of our mobile traffic in 2015!
Mobile Operating Platforms on Soccer Laduma: May 2015
The new Soccer Laduma mobile site was built specifically with Smartphone users in mind, as it offers readers a much richer mobile experience than what is available on our feature phone version. We are also able to target smartphone users specifically when ad serving, which has enabled us to deliver smartphone targeted campaigns across the various platforms like Android (36,13%), Windows Phone (3,9%), and iOS (2,81%).
With mobile data cost set to decrease and with more affordable smartphone devices set to hit the market, it won't be much longer until smartphone devices completely dominates the mobile market in South Africa.
For more information on how to partner with Soccer Laduma, email tracy@snl24.com/soccerladuma or tweet me @ashdigital_ and @SLadvertising.
