Ranking SA’s biggest websites
The local online industry is starting to mature with companies increasingly investing in their online presence. Many multi-million rand deals in the Internet arena also signal a more vibrant online market in South Africa.
It is well known that News24, IOL and Mweb have long dominated the online publishing environment, but many other websites – typically banking sites, email services and mobile portals – also attract large numbers of visitors each month.
This begs the question as to which websites are the largest in South Africa and attract the most unique monthly visitors.
A good starting place is always Alexa, an objective international measuring system, where one can get a list of the biggest SA websites. This measuring system is not entirely accurate, but it does give a good idea of which websites are popular among local visitors.
According to Alexa the top 10 local websites are News24, Standard Bank, Mweb, Absa, Gumtree, Webmail, IOL, MyBroadband, BidorBuy and Signmein.
It should be noted that the previous list excludes international websites such as Google.co.za, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube, which actually dominate the top 10, but these are not local websites and are therefore not listed in this article.
The Alexa rankings give a fair reflection of the biggest websites in South Africa, but website statistics from services such as Nielsen Netratings and Google Analytics are far more accurate.
The main problem with actual website statistics is that audited stats are not always available for all websites. This is specifically true of websites not reliant on advertising revenue – typically the banks and mobile portals.
When it comes to audited website statistics, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and the Website Association of South Africa (WASA) provide the most comprehensive lists.
According to audited statistics from the OPA and WASA, News24 leads the pack, followed by Independent Online, Hotmail (ZA), MSN (ZA), Webmail, MWEB, 24.com, MyBroadband, Health24 and Mail & Guardian Online.
This list, however, excludes banks. Bring them into play and the situation looks somewhat different.
The true list of biggest websites
By using all of the available statistics – and information supplied by the banks and mobile providers – one can construct a fairly accurate list of the biggest websites in South Africa.
News24 remains the top website in South Africa with over 1.76 Million unique monthly visitors – a significant lead over any of its competitors. It is followed by Absa with 1.25 Million unique visitors and IOL with 1.08 Million monthly visitors.
Hotmail ZA with 1.028 million visitors and MSN ZA with 966 847 visitors are two of the most visited local sites, with Standard Bank fitting in just below Hotmail ZA with just over a million unique visitors.
Some may view it as a surprise top 10 entry, but with 905 000 unique visitors and over 30 million page views a month the classifieds website Gumtree South Africa is definitely one of SA's most visited online destinations.
The mobile providers are also doing well in the online space. The Vodacom4me website gets 455 000 unique visitors a month while around 425 000 people visit the MTN website every month.
Here is a list of the largest websites in South Africa
| Website | Publisher | Unique Monthly Visitors |
| News24.co.za | Media24 | 1 760 071 |
| ABSA | ABSA | 1 250 000 |
| IOL.co.za | Independant Online | 1 077 128 |
| Hotmail ZA | MSN | 1 028 132 |
| Standard Bank | Standard Bank | 1 000 000 |
| MSN ZA | MSN | 966 847 |
| Gumtree SA | Gumtree | 905 000 |
| Webmail | Interface | 721 392 |
| MWEB | MWEB | 703 781 |
| 24.com | Media24 | 699 255 |
| MyBroadband.co.za | MyBroadband | 594 701 |
| Health24.co.za | Media24 | 550 623 |
| MG.co.za | Mail & Guardian | 485 280 |
| Supersport.co.za | Supersport Zone | 460 325 |
| Vodacom4me.co.za | Vodacom | 455 249 |
| The Times | Avusa | 432 249 |
| MTN.co.za | MTN | 425 000 |
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