The South African entertainment and media (E&M) market will generate estimated overall revenues of R175.4 billion in 2017, having increased from R104.8 billion in 2012 – a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%. Internet will remain the major force behind the growth in E&M revenues. Even if much of the access revenue growth goes to companies not historically seen as E&M companies, digital content and services would not be possible without the infrastructure and networks to distribute them.
AFRICA: Countries with most Internet users 2012
Source: AfDB
AFRICA: Smartphone user growth 2013-18. Top 3 African countries
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Source: eMarketer
AFRICA: Countries with highest smartphone user growth 2013-2018
Description:
South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria will land among the top 25 countries for smartphone user growth worldwide in 2014. Continued growth is expected through 2018
MID. EAST-AFRICA: Internet Use in the Mid East, North Africa Still Lags Far Behind
Description:
The Middle East and Africa region, when viewed as a whole, still has a relatively low internet penetration rate, expected to reach 17.4% of the population this year, according to eMarketer projections. But Ipsos MediaCT in its February 2013 report, “Ipsos Online Audience Measurement in the Arab World,” identified a number of countries with significant online populations.
AFRICA: Where South African Consumers Buy Online
Description:
The ecommerce marketplace has opened its doors in diverse emerging markets, and a March 2013 study by market research firm Jana shows that a significant percentage of mobile phone users in these countries are beginning to buy digitally. Compared with the other four countries surveyed—India, Kenya, the Philippines and Nigeria—the study found that South Africa had the greatest percentage of mobile phone users (67%) who at least sometimes bought products online. Kenya posted the lowest percentage of mobile phone users sometimes buying online, at a still considerable 56%.
AFRICA: Word-of-Mouth Popular in Africa
Description:
Doing business in sub-Sahara Africa can be full of disparate challenges, and anyone looking to identify a classic African consumer will struggle. Despite sharing a common border, inhabitants of one country differ from those in a neighboring country with respect to their attitudes, buying and media preferences. Given this degree of diversity within and across geographies, new research from Nielsen shows that marketers need to look beyond the obvious to reach and resonate with both niche and mass audiences.
AFRICA: 66% of Internet users (66%) speak an African language at home
Description:
The majority of Internet users are now young, black and live on less than R1,500 a month, according to a new report launched on Tuesday. The report gives the first results of The South African Network Society Survey, based on face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,589 South African adults across rural and urban areas of the country.
According to the report, one in three (34%) adults now use the Internet. Two out of three Internet users (66%) speak an African language at home, most of the them have not been educated beyond school level and four out of ten live on less than R1,500 per month.
SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa’s Internet Users Primarily Young
Description:
Only one-third of South Africa’s population used the internet in 2012, according to a December report from the South African Network Society Project (SANSS) at the University of Witwatersrand, conducted by Research ICT Africa (RIA). Despite that low number, penetration was still more than double eMarketer’s estimate for the Middle East and Africa overall in 2012, at 15.7% of the total population.
MID. EAST: Silicon Wafers & Semiconductors: A New Black Gold for Abu Dhabi?
Description:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sought to become a globally competitive economy since its founding in 1971. The country’s oil wealth and forward-thinking approach has allowed it to progress toward this goal through capital-intensive economic initiatives, social programs and legal reforms.
The UAE’s leadership considers economic diversification a necessity in order to protect the country’s economy from oil-price fluctuations and to diversify sources of income. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi until his death in 2004, believed that “future generations will be living in a world that is very different from that to which we are accustomed. It is essential that we prepare ourselves and our children for that new world.” This diversification is needed as public sector employers have become saturated, with some ministries spending as much as 92% of their budgets on salaries. Given these factors, Sheikh Zayed announced his intention to transition the country from an energy-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, dependent not on natural resources but on competitive, highly educated human