Mobile users in Africa are increasingly utilising their handsets to access the internet, according to a new report.
Opera’s latest State of the Mobile Web study found that use of the company’s Mini browser for mobiles rose by 180 per cent between January and September this year.
In Africa, mobile web usage rates are particularly high as personal computer penetration is not as high as that of mobile phones, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
Breaking down its findings, Opera noted that Egypt is now the tenth biggest user of Opera Mini in the world, with South Africa in sixth place.
“Month after month we have witnessed our usage numbers in Africa skyrocket. This tells us that change is underway and more people now have the ability to access the internet from locations that were previously unthinkable,” commented Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of Opera.
Digital agency executives may need to adapt their work to take into account such trends, particularly in the light of recent study findings from Keynote Systems suggesting that satisfaction rates with the mobile versions of sites like Yahoo! News are low among iPhone users.
