Insight into how South Africans use Twitter

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The study, commissioned by Twitter and conducted by Nielsen, shows that 53% of users in South Africa fall in the age range of 25 to 44; nearly one-third (29%) are aged 16 to 24 and the remaining 18% are over 55.

Just over half of the Twitter users in South Africa are women (56%), 87% of people use a mobile phone to access the Internet and of those, 3 in 5 use their mobile phone to access Twitter as a preference. Laptops are the second most popular device used to access Twitter at 68% and tablet users contribute 32% of the access.

Because of the high percentage of people engaging with Twitter via a mobile device (mobile phone and/or tablet), it is most often accessed 'on the move' and 'in the moment'. For example, while travelling; at school and university; shopping and at live events. Mobile users also tend to be more likely to engage at various times of the day but are particularly more active than the average user during weekday evenings between 6pm and 9pm and during weekend nights (midnight to 7am).

When looking at the range of features available and what is used most often, 52% of those surveyed said that they read Tweets on their timeline daily, 40% said they tweet themselves and 37% look at the trending topics.

Usage, topics

South Africans make use of Twitter for different reasons but mainly to keep up to date, connect and discover - 64% of users for keeping up to date with breaking news and 39% use it for the latest sports information. In terms of connecting with people, 55% engage with people they know and 53% of users connect with people they do not know - showing its power to create connections. It is also used as a way to discover and 58% of users conducted searches on the platform.

According to the study in South Africa, women are more likely to Tweet about holidays and celebrities whereas men Tweet about news, sports and politics. However 63% of people Tweet about jokes or things that make them laugh. A good example of this is the recent 'Twitter Town Hall' #AskMmusi, where South Africans started to Tweet jokes and ended up causing #AskMmusi to trend worldwide.

Another South African favourite is music content with 69% of South African users indicating it as their top interest. Film (67%), food (66%), TV shows (64%) and travel (60%) complete the top five South African interests.