Twitter, South Africa’s biggest growing social media platform

In 2017, World Wide Worx estimated that Twitter had around 8 million users in South Africa, a 4% increase compared to the year before.

Collins said he could not confirm or refute the figure, as Twitter does not break down individual country markets.

He also said that it isn’t focussing on monthly users, but daily active users.

Also read: Twitter tweak steps up fight against trolls

Active user comparison

While Twitter’s daily active user growth has been tremendous, its monthly active user figures have been more modest.

Twitter:

Twitter does not report daily active user numbers, but does report the growth, which has been 10% or greater since the fourth quarter of 2016.

Facebook:

In South Africa, Facebook has 16 million monthly active users.

Instagram:

Also read: The dangers of getting ‘Cheeky’ on social media

Twitter usage in South Africa

Collins said the company has also seen innovative use of the platform from places like radio stations – who use Twitter to drive tune-in to shows – in South Africa.

Additionally, the company has built tools like Twitter Lite for more bandwidth-strapped regions, like South Africa and its neighbours, which has enabled people to use the platform more regularly.

“In general, we aim to build one Twitter and give people tools to create and produce their own content,” said Collins.

He said that video is where much of their focus and growth is currently.

“Over half our ad revenue comes from video, and we continue to see the most innovation around video.”

Original content: My Broadband

Follow Lowvelder on Twitter: @Lowvelder
Follow Lowvelder on Instagram: @Lowveldmedia