Africa’s mobile map and the questions it raises
This is an interesting visualisation showing numbers of mobile phone subscribers in each country.
You can see how South Africa performs way above the norm for Africa and, in fact, challenges plenty of other more developed markets. What is also interesting is how South Africa's mobile penetration is almost double that of Egypt - yet when it comes to internet access per capita Egypt far outstrips South Africa.
Interesting story with Nigeria with similar mobile penetration to Egypt and - although way up the rankings with absolute numbers of 11m for online users. This shows the incredible market which exists in Africa's most populous country for the digital revolution to take hold. No wonder every mobile comms company is falling over themselves to get in there.
- Egypt has 12,5m internet users or penetration of 15,9% and is 29th in the world. Mobile penetration is 50.5 per 100.
- South Africa has 4,5m internet users or penetration of 9,4% and is 47th in the world. Mobile penetration is 90.6 per 100.
- Nigeria 30th in the world with 11m internet users and 7,4% penetration. Mobile penetration is41.7 per 100. Source for online penetration: Wikipedia
The big question this map raises for me is some skepticism over the online numbers. As next generation cell phones and smart phones grow in the South Africa market surely these devices are providing many more online users than the estimate of 4,5m would suggest?
And if that's the case, what do the real numbers look like and what should that be doing to our thinking in terms of online as a viable business space in South Africa and Africa more generally?
