A new study by Portland, How Africa Tweets, analyses twitter usage in Africa, a bit of a first! There is plenty of research about how the USA uses twitter, but not much in the way of numbers and usage in Africa. So this research is welcome, as it shows a growing trend in the use of twitter for news, entertainment, and recruitment.

Some of the key findings show that African tweeters are young, mobile, using it for news and, for now, mostly South African. The details include the following:

• Africans tweeters are mostly 21-29 years old (60%)

• 57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile phones

• 68% of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor news. 22% use it to search for employment opportunities.
• South Africa has the most volume of tweets (5,030,226 during fourth quarter of 2011), followed by Kenya (2,476,800), Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620).

Beatrice Karanja, Associate Director and head of Portland Nairobi, says: “We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa’s Twitter revolution is really just beginning. Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views. And for Africa – as for the rest of the world – that can only be good.”

However, the researchers were surprised that more public figures (politicians, business people) were largely absent from twitter. They felt this was short sighted, given the dialogue that is starting to take place on twitter.

Interestingly, as this has gained traction on twitter, a new hashtag is also gaining momentum – #africansact – which looks at how social media is used in social change in Africa. Join the chat …

Imagine if we could send data through a lightbulb? Well, Harald Haas (of University of Edinborough) reckons maybe we can. This is an idea that could well take off in Africa, where infrastructure (or lack thereof) seriously hampers data transfer. Of course, a lightbulb generally requires electricity… but there are ways around that too. Imagine solar power plus an LED lightbulb …

This was one of the ideas profiled in the TED and The Huffington Post 18 great ideas of 2011. More here.

Related articles

• Forget WiFi, It’s LiFi: Internet Through Lightbulbs (good.is)

GSM.org

from the African Mobile Observatory

The mobile industry in Africa is booming. With over 620 million mobile connections as of September 2011, Africa has overtaken Latin America to become the second largest mobile market in the world, after Asia. Over the past 10 years, the number of mobile connections in Africa has grown an average of 30% per year and is forecast to reach 735 million by the end of 2012.

Fierce competition has driven down prices and increased penetration. Mobile connectivity is now more broadly affordable to citizens. 96% of subscriptions are pre-paid with voice services currently dominating, however the uptake of data services is increasing rapidly.

The Mobile Industry in Africa contributes US$56 billion to the regional economy, equivalent to 3.5% of total GDP. In particular, the mobile ecosystem is estimated to employ over 5 million Africans and is contributing to bringing mobile services to customers right across the continent. However there remains huge untapped potential – 36% of Africans, within the 25 largest African mobile markets (A25), still have no access to mobile services. Projections indicate that raising the whole region to 100% mobile penetration, could add an additional US$35 billion in aggregate GDP to the region, equivalent to a further 2% increase.

The mobile industry in Africa is an enabler of economic development far beyond its immediate domain. Mobile operators have driven the emergence of a unique industry in innovative mobile services in Africa. Mobile Value-Added Services have been launched throughout the continent to enable and support agriculture, banking, education, healthcare and gender equality. In particular, the emergence of mobile money transfers and mobile banking puts Africa firmly at the forefront of the global Mobile Money industry. Beyond mobile services, the mobile industry is also contributing to rural electrical distribution with lower carbon emissions and facilitating the work of NGOs across the continent. Many African governments have prioritized ICT policy as a key driver for development.

For the mobile industry to continue to serve as a catalyst for growth, sufficient spectrum is needed for the provision of mobile broadband services. African countries have currently allocated considerably less spectrum to mobile services than developing countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Allocating the Digital Dividend spectrum to mobile services will enable the mobile industry to accelerate its efforts to bring connectivity and information to the rest of rural Africa.

Read the full report here.

http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/African_Mobile_Observatory_Full_Report_2011.pdf

Watch on Youtube … http://youtu.be/-Nobp3n6FHU

The most popular sites in Africa include Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo and Wikipedia.

Interestingly, twitter comes in at 8th most popular site in South Africa.

The top 10 handsets used were Nokia (outright winner), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Alcatel,  Apple and LG.

Here are snapshots from Nigeria (top growth) and South Africa (second in line).

More presidents, more governments who are interested in communicating with citizens and encouraging accountability should try these strategies.

I’m pretty sure it was a tightly controlled event – he wasn’t going to be responding to fringe lunatics, but I’m also pretty sure there were some journalists thinking – howcome Jack Dorsey gets a one on one with the US President? Well, I guess that’s cos he’s the head of twitter – and twitter is more influential than you think …

Facebook

Following their message and group chat updates over the last few months, video chat is the latest in facebook’s communications arsenal. It’s powered by Skype, but you don’t have to login to skype to use it – just go straight to facebook and hey presto, you’re there, and chatting to your mates, with real time video. Fabulous – if you’re not in your pj’s and guzzling pizza

Does this mean people will spend more time on facebook and less on skype? Time will tell.

Simple steps to get on facebook videochat:

How to use Facebook Video Calling :

1 – Login to facebook
2 – Go to http://www.facebook.com/videocalling
3 – Follow the simple setup prompts
4 – either call someone who is currently online, or open up facebook chat
5 – Open a chatbox with a friend. Instead of typing text, click the video icon (top right corner)
6 – Give your friend a chance to download the same videochat app
7 – check the mirror to see you’re looking groovy
8 – jabber, laugh and have fun on video

Read more on the facebook blog here.