Analysts have repeatedly positioned Africa as a unique market when it comes to its connected population, particularly with regards to the strong mobile affinity its people have.
Sandvine, provider of broadband network solutions, has released its latest Internet traffic trends report - "Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013" - based on data garnered from fixed and mobile service providers. While the report covers regions globally, Sandvine says it highlights Africa as a unique Internet nation amid the global shifting landscape.
Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo says you have to be in Africa to understand Africa. "The African market is especially unique, as most users are connecting to the Internet for the first time through mobile devices, and using applications like Skype, Facebook and WhatsApp. In other parts of the world, new users have first connected to the Internet via a fixed line. While video is a small part of mobile bandwidth in the region today, we predict Africa will be the fastest video adopter and operators will respond with creative device- and application-based service tiers."
According to the International Telecommunication Union, Africa has an Internet penetration rate of 16% ? half that of Asia-Pacific and less than half the global average of 36%.
Here are seven key findings revealed in the latest Sandvine global Internet report:
1. Video accounts for less than 6% of traffic on mobile networks in Africa, but is expected to grow faster than in any other region before it.
2. BlackBerry e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger accounts for over 13% of traffic across Africa.
3. Average monthly mobile usage in Asia-Pacific now exceeds 1GB, driven by video, which accounts for 50% of peak downstream traffic. This is more than double the 443MB monthly average in North America.
4. In Europe, Netflix - less than two years since launch - now accounts for over 20% of downstream traffic on certain fixed networks in the British Isles. It took almost four years for Netflix to achieve 20% of data traffic in the US.
5. Instagram and Dropbox are now top-ranked applications in many regions across the globe. On mobile networks in Latin America, Instagram - due to the recent addition of video - is now the 7th top ranked downstream application, making it a prime candidate for inclusion in tiered data plans which are popular in the region.
6. Netflix holds its ground as the leading downstream application in North America (31.6%) and together with YouTube (18.6%) accounts for over 50% of downstream traffic on fixed networks.
7. Peer-to-peer file-sharing now accounts for less than 10% of total daily traffic in North America. Five years ago, it accounted for over 31%.
Sandvine's Internet reports - released twice a year - are based on a representative cross-section of data from a selection of over 250 of the company's customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Data is gathered over a one-month period and is subscriber-anonymous.
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