Statistics

ITU Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009

• Americas
• Africa
• Asia and Pacific

ITU 2009 Report

• "ICTs 40 times more expensive in Africa than in Europe."
• Developing countries are only ten years behind European countries in terms of mobile subscriber penetration.
• Download full report (PDF)

Mobile phone costs in Africa

• Africa Signals

Research ICT Africa

Mobile phone usage in Africa (Source: Guardian)

• In Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia the mobile industry has only penetrated 10 percent of the population.
• The share of the population covered by a mobile signal stood at 76% in developing countries in 2006, including 61% in rural areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, closer to half the population was covered, including 42% in rural areas.

Tweets from the Mobile Web Africa Conference (#MWA09) through Twitter search

• 10.1 million mobile web user in SA end of 2009 #mwa09
• The Grid facts, 60% first access to internet is via mobile phone, 80% primarily use their mobile phone to access internet #mwa09
• Example of how mobile can influence economies: Niger saw a 6.4% drop in grain price due to SMS sharing of market info #mwa09
• SA's most popular mobisite is Soccer Laduma. Sep 08: 39k monthly uniques; Sep 09: 229k monthly uniques (acc. to Nielsen). #mwa09
• Mxit launched a mobile classifieds platform in June 09, 9,000 posts a day now, 10 moderators full-time to get rid of porn mainly. #mwa09
• Google search on mobile use in Africa highest in Nigeria (by far), followed by Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Cote d'Ivoire #mwa09
• Google mobile traffic has increased 5 fold since 2007! Wow! #mwa09
• Kenya has 40+ languages and 65+ radio stations. Radio and Television are increasingly using SMS as a response channel. #mwa09
• SMS is 95% of profit for mobile network operators. #mwa09
• 45-50% of traffic to the BBC's mobile sport and news sites comes from African countries. #mwa09