The cost of mobile advertising for South Africans

The average CPC (cost per click) in other countries like the US and UK is about US$0.08, while in South Africa it costs about US$0.25 per click on average.

The problem exists because South Africa itself does not have any local inventory/publishers of WAP portals to speak of. We have MXIT, Vodafone Live, Soccer Laduma and a couple of insignificantly smaller ones. In my business, I call on local brands and businesses to create WAP portals at least at the rate that they create web sites. The reality is that last year the revenue generated by mobile advertising from SA was approx. R1.9bn (more than cinema), but 90% of that revenue was spent on overseas mobile publishers like BBC, CNN, My Gamma and others. This means that the revenue generated by local advertising landed in the hands of foreign media companies and mobile advertising servers like Admob (US), Admoda (U.K) and Buzz City (South East Asian).

I just get sick and tired of South Africa and Africa being re-colonised every time we happen to show growth in a particular sector. Being an emerging territory always gives big western businesses a head start on capitalising on our revenues. This should be a something for all of us to think about. I also note that organisations like MMA in South Africa don't seem to have these issues at the top of the agenda and this is a matter for concern.

I am once again urging local brands and organisations to create mobile Wap portals and build huge communities that are able to give advertisers platforms for target advertising that is local in nature. We also have a duty to bring mobile social networking to Africa and South Africa in ways that give us the platform to express ourselves, share, self-actualise and access each other within a localised context.