WhatsApp is the leading third-party messaging application in Africa, according to new research from Sandvine, and accounts for 7% of total traffic on mobile networks.
In North American and European markets, WhatsApp accounts for less than 2% of total traffic.
This is one of the key findings from Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Program which, together with the company’s Internet Phenomena Blog, has gained a global reputation for revealing the latest facts, fads and future trends about consumer Internet usage from networks around the globe.
Sandvine solutions are currently being used by more than 30 networks in 20 African countries to provide actionable business intelligence and policy solutions in order to deploy new services and improve subscribers’ Internet quality of experience.
“Throughout Africa, communications service providers are rapidly building out their networks to enhance services and extend coverage into new and previously unconnected locations,” says Tom Donnelly, Sandvine’s COO, sales and global services.
“Sandvine’s success in Africa has made it possible to reveal the latest regional Internet usage data which our customers can use to help improve subscribers’ quality of experience and offer innovative new service tiers.”
Some other key points from the latest research include:
* Viber has overtaken Skype as the leading VoIP service on several networks;
* Streaming video accounts for just over 6% of downstream traffic, which is significantly lower than North America and Europe where it accounts for more than 30%;
* WAP Browsing has seen a significant decline in traffic share thanks to increased adoption of smartphones throughout the region;
* Streaming video is the leading source of downstream traffic (26%), but is still significantly lower than most other world markets where it is typically the majority of traffic;
* YouTube is the top video streaming app, accountable for 12.3% of downstream traffic; and
* P2P Filesharing still represents over 15% of total fixed network traffic, likely due to the lack of over-the-top streaming options and the poorer streaming experience afforded by slower networks, compared to downloading content to watch later.
