Biggest websites in South Africa

Latest Nielsen Online statistics shed light on the largest local websites and most popular mobile destinations

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) recently announced that local websites attracted 6,401,275 unique local visitors per month over the second quarter of 2009.  This is an increase of around 350,000 unique browsers from the previous quarter, giving an indication of the overall growth in Internet usage in South Africa.

The total number of unique browsers (i.e. local and international visitors to OPA member sites) for the second quarter was 11,267,392; up from 11,013,156 in the first quarter of 2009.  These figures are according to Nielsen Online, the traffic measurement system used by the OPA to track traffic across their member base exceeding 200 local websites. 

Many people may wonder which South African websites rule the roost, and the latest Nielsen Online statistics (September 2009) provide an overview of the largest websites and mobile websites in the country.  The figures quoted in this article are based on the Nielsen Market Intelligence total traffic for the period of September 2009.

It should however be noted that some of South Africa’s biggest websites, including Gumtree, BidorBuy, ABSA, Standard Bank and FNB are not members of the OPA which means that they are not included in the Nielsen Market Intelligence reports.  International sites like Google, Facebook, Youtube and WikiPedia are also not part of the report.

The following table gives both the biggest ‘standard’ websites and mobile sites ordered according to unique monthly visitors.

Biggest websites in South Africa - comments and views