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Facebook Revealed As Key Channel For Businesses In Africa

By Elin Box on September 28, 2015

Global Marketing News – 28th September 2015

Facebook revealed as key channel for businesses in Africa

New data from Facebook has revealed that the majority of users from key African online markets use the social network to interact with small-to-medium sized businesses.

63% of users from Kenya, 61% from South Africa and 54% from Nigeria actively engage with the Facebook pages of small businesses.

The trend is being attributed to the fact that Facebook has recently added several new features for Pages, with many of these being aimed at small business Pages.

Pages can now send private messages to customers, add sections, and display call-to-action buttons.

A spokesperson from Facebook has commented on the trend, saying: “With more than a billion people visiting Pages on Facebook every month, Pages are the best place for businesses, and in particular small businesses, to reach the people who care about their business.”

Africa is a key frontier for future online growth, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the social network will be focussing on Africa as an important emerging market.

Ecommerce accounts for 5% of total retail in Poland

A report from PMR has revealed that the ecommerce market in Poland currently accounts for 5% of the total retail market in the country.

It also predicts that ecommerce in Poland will grow substantially in the coming years, and is expected to double to account for 10% of total retail within the next 5 years.

Increased internet penetration is thought to be the behind the rising popularity of online shopping, with convenience and cheaper prices being the key reasons Poles are choosing to shop online.

The report also revealed that the ecommerce market is currently rather fragmented. While electronics and appliances are currently enjoying high levels of ecommerce, other sectors such as groceries and children’s products are almost always bought in-store rather than online.

Global average internet speed hits 5.1Mbps

Research by Akamai has found that the global average internet speed has risen to 5.1Mbps, a 3.5% increase on the previous quarter.

The country with the fastest internet speed in the world was South Korea, where residents enjoy an average speed of 23.1Mbps.

It was followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Latvia, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

The proportion of global internet users with speeds over 15Mbps, the speed necessary to stream 4K video, rose by 2.5% on the previous quarter to 14%.

The research also broke down US data into more localised areas. In the US, which ranked 20th in the world for internet speeds, the fastest average speeds were in the District of Columbia, whereas the slowest average speeds were in Alaska.

Age-based social media preferences in Indonesia revealed

Social media preferences vary dramatically between age groups in Indonesia, according to research by Dwi Sapta.

For children aged 13-15, Facebook, WhatsApp, Line and BBM are most popular. The young teens use Facebook and Line mainly for games, with WhatsApp being the preferred method of private communication rather than text.

The popularity of BBM is mainly due to the fact it is automatically installed on Blackberry, rather than the app per se.

Amongst teenagers aged 16-18, Facebook becomes less popular, with Line and Twitter becoming the new networks of choice as a thirst for up-to-date information emerges.

Amongst young adults aged 19-25, Line, WhatsApp, Path and LinkedIn are the favourite social networks. The appearance of the professional network LinkedIn reflects the fact this is the age when many people get their first jobs.

Amongst older adults aged 25-44, Facebook re-emerges as a top social network, with WhatsApp and LinkedIn remaining popular.

Daraz receives $55 million in funding

And finally, the Rocket Internet-backed ecommerce site Daraz has received 55 million US dollars’ worth of funding from the UK government and Asia Pacific Internet Group.

Daraz is an Amazon-style ecommerce site that operates in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The funding will help it to better establish itself in these countries as well as expand into other Asian countries.

A spokesperson from Daraz commented on the market, saying: “Although internet penetration is still relatively low, the market is developing fast and its potential is immense.”

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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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