Biggest social media and messaging platforms in South Africa - 2021 Social Media Landscape report

[Jan]

WhatsApp vs Facebook — biggest social platforms in South Africa

World Wide Worx and Ornico have released the 2021 Social Media Landscape report, which revealed a big increase in social media uptake in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It found that there are 25 million active social media users in South Africa, up by 3 million (13.6%) from last year.

Of these, 24.63 million — 98.5% — access social media services from their mobile phones.

“As everywhere in the world, South Africans have needed to take a new approach to staying connected while staying apart. The result was a surge in both online access and social media use,” said Arthur Goldtsuck, the MD of World Wide Worx.

 

[Ockie]

Good to see Telegram in there.

 

[The Trutherizer]

Good to see Telegram in there.

The name Pavel Durov ring a bell?
No such thing as a free lunch. Why do you think investors would invest in it?

 

[Ockie]

The name Pavel Durov ring a bell?
No such thing as a free lunch. Why do you think investors would invest in it?

He has been open about Telegram monetizing certain business features in future. I have no problem with that so long as normal person to person chats remain as is etc.

 

[The Trutherizer]

He has been open about Telegram monetizing certain business features in future. I have no problem with that so long as normal person to person chats remain as is etc.

From Russia with love? Please.

 

[Ockie]

From Russia with love? Please.

Oh FFS. Not this Russia thing again. He is from Russia and created Telegram to prevent the Russian government from snooping on people's chats. Telegram was even banned in Russia because they would not give the government a in on censor things. Read up before you talk k@k.

 

[The Trutherizer]

Oh FFS. Not this Russia thing again. He is from Russia and created Telegram to prevent the Russian government from snooping on people's chats. Telegram was even banned in Russia because they would not give the government a in on censor things. Read up before you talk k@k.

Oh it's blocked is it? You sure?

In April 2020, the Government of Russia started using the blocked Telegram platform to spread information related to COVID-19 outbreak.

On 18 June 2020 Roskomnadzor (you can look that one up) lifted its ban on Telegram after it 'agrees to help with extremism investigations'. The court ruling which was the basis of original ban is still in force, and hence the lifting is illegal.

So it's legally blocked, but government approved for use by anybody in Russia. Until they stop cooperating we can easily assume. At which time the original ruling will simply be enforced again.

 

[Number Six]

What is depressing is 9 million f**kwits on Tiktok. Our Chinese overloads must be happy.

 

[The Trutherizer]

What is depressing is 9 million f**kwits on Tiktok. Our Chinese overloads must be happy.

That is a rather sad joke yeah.

 

[Ockie]

Oh it's blocked is it? You sure?

In April 2020, the Government of Russia started using the blocked Telegram platform to spread information related to COVID-19 outbreak.

On 18 June 2020 Roskomnadzor (you can look that one up) lifted its ban on Telegram after it 'agrees to help with extremism investigations'. The court ruling which was the basis of original ban is still in force, and hence the lifting is illegal.

So it's legally blocked, but government approved for use by anybody in Russia. Until they stop cooperating we can easily assume. At which time the original ruling will simply be enforced again.

Believe what you want. The fact you ignored me saying it WAS blocked and going on about it not being blocked anymore shows I can't talk to you. Use WhatsApp then and be done with it. I am happy with Telegram for now.

 

[The Trutherizer]

Believe what you want. The fact you ignored me saying it WAS blocked and going on about it not being blocked anymore shows I can't talk to you. Use WhatsApp then and be done with it. I am happy with Telegram for now.

Oh... The "was banned" was short for "was banned, but not anymore now, and is being used as an intelligence gathering and information disseminating tool by the Russian government via the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media".

Why didn't you say so? I assumed you cared about communications privacy and social media censorship. I got entirely the wrong read I see.
On that note I do not want to just assume why exactly it is "good" to see that Telegram enjoys a significant presence in South Africa. So I wont. Who knows what hides behind word number two.

 

[Danie_V]

Wondering how wide they caught "social media" although it was interviews so hopefully only not limited to specific commercial networks. I'm on a good other 10 networks not listed in the graph and on MeWe alone I have a group with 45,000 subscribers. There are a lot of alternative networks growing now, although very likely not amongst South Africans. I don't think the whole of Africa even hosts a single instance of Mastodon....

 

[cda]

“Whatsapp vs Facebook” - they are the same company morons

 

[6spdmanual]

Ayyy!!! Where my Reddit at? It’s far and away my favourite of the bunch.