Browser Wars: Usage stats for December 2011
Google’s Chrome web browser continued to see greater usage in South Africa at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Though Microsoft still comfortably leads the browser race, both in SA and abroad, its usage share has plummeted over the last few years.
Its decline has been less pronounced in South Africa than globally. According to StatCounter, in South Africa Internet Explorer went from generating 78% of website page views to 53%.
Globally, Chrome overtook Firefox during October 2011 according to Net Applications, which measures usage according to unique users, weighted by the number of Internet users in a country.
StatCounter December 2011 worldwide desktop browser stats
StatCounter, which measures usage based on raw page views, reported that Chrome overtook Firefox during November 2011 (globally).
Regardless of which method of measurement you prefer, StatCounter and Net Applications agree on one thing: IE is rapidly losing usage share while Chrome is rapidly gaining.
StatCounter December 2011 South Africa desktop browser stats
| StatCounter desktop browser stats: December 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Browser | Worldwide | South Africa |
| Internet Explorer | 38.65% | 53.3% |
| Firefox | 25.27% | 20.4% |
| Chrome | 27.27% | 18.2% |
| Safari | 6.08% | 5.82% |
| Opera | 1.98% | 1.26% |
| Other | 0.75% | 1.02% |
At MyBroadband we see the same usage trends in Google Analytics, but with somewhat different statistics.
When it comes to desktop browsing, MyBroadband users are also using Internet Explorer less and Chrome more.
Safari has also seen a steady increase in usage while Firefox and Opera usage has remained comparatively flat.
As in previous months there’s an interesting shake-up in rankings when you compare browser usage by page views rather than by number of visitors.
| MyBroadband browser usage stats: December 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Browser | Visits | Pageviews |
| Firefox | 29.03% | 34.62% |
| Chrome | 26.77% | 29.57% |
| Internet Explorer | 30.65% | 24.96% |
| Safari | 7.91% | 6.69% |
| Opera | 1.96% | 2.03% |
| Other | 3.68% | 2.13% |
| Opera Mini | 1.62% | 0.87% |
These differences between the two measurement metrics shows that although the race between the top 3 browsers among MyBroadband readers might be tight, Internet Explorer users don’t generate nearly as many page views as Firefox or Chrome.
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