According to new research by private healthcare search engine WhatClinic.com, South Africa leads the way in using mobile devices to search the site.In the past five years, mobile and tablet traffic to the site – which has over 1-million unique visitors every month -has increased significantly in every country around the world, but nowhere as much as in South Africa, where now more than half of all traffic through the global healthcare search engine is from mobile devices.
At the same time, desktop traffic has dwindled. In 2009, desktop traffic accounted for 97% of all SA traffic to the site, on a par with the global average of 96%. Over the past five years, that has fallen to around half, down to 51% for the past 12 months.
Month-by-month mobile usage is increasing, however, and in September it peaked with 55% mobile traffic. October remained high at 54%. Tablet remains static at roughly at 10% for both Sept and Oct 2014.
In terms of what mobiles are being used, iPhone leads the way in South Africa, accounting for more than 10% of all traffic to site. Apple’s iPad has the lion’s share of tablet traffic, accounting for 9,8 % of the 10% tablet traffic to site.
The runner-up in South Africa is the Samsung Galaxy, which accounts for 4,2% of all traffic.
In contrast to the rest of the world, South Africa is clinging to some of the old favourites when it comes to mobile devices. Blackberry and Nokia handsets are still in the top 10, unlike the UK where iPhone usage dominates at 34% of all traffic, but with versions of Samsung Galaxy filling every other slot in the UK leader board.
A 2011 Nielson report showed that 29-million South Africans were using mobile phones, compared to only 6-million with personal computers. The same report points out that South Africa is fifth in the world for mobile data, ahead of the US in seventh place.
Emily Ross, director of WhatClinic.com, comments: “The trends reported here are interesting – but not surprising. Internet access has transformed how both consumers and businesses in South Africa interact.
“It has never been so important to have an online presence for your business, and to understand the technological behaviour of consumers. Ensuring you can be found and contacted by mobile users is essential.
“We believe that network strength is a major concern for mobile users in South Africa, so page loading times and mobile optimised sites are essential for businesses who want to be found online.
“In addition, when building and testing new sites, Blackberry and Nokia are still in the running for site access, so key pages, forms and contact numbers should still be tested on these devices to ensure visibility.”
