Last week we looked at some juicy Social Media Statistics. To take it one step further, we decided to look into our own backyard to see how South Africans participate online, both as consumers and advertisers.

Media researcher and commentator, Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx and the Online Publishers Association conducted a 2008/2009 survey of Online Media in South Africa.

Some of their interesting findings from January 2009:

• There were an estimated 4,590,000 South African Internet users at the end of 2008.
• Online ad revenue grew 27% in 2007 and 32% in 2008.
• The top types of online advertising in 2006 were static banner ads, rich media banners, subscription content and PPC.
• The top online advertising avenues in 2007 were static banners, rich media banners, sponsored content and PPC.
• The top Social media revenue generators for 2006 include newsletters, transactional content, affiliate revenue.
• While in 2009, the top social media earners were newsletters, mobile, affiliates and blogs.
• The number of broadband users has gone from 15 700 in 2003 to 1 058 000 in 2008.

South African Blog Statistics

Goldstuck and company also highlighted the massive expansions in the country’s blogosphere.

South African eMarketing specialist and all round online media good guy, Dave Duarte created a SA Web statistics Wiki (March 2007) and reckons:  

• 62% of South Africans with access to the Internet do so from their workplace, 27% from home, 6% from educational facilities and 3% from public Internet cafes.
• 27% of Internet access is made from Jo’burg, 12% from Pretoria, 16% from the Mother City, and 6% from Durban. The Northern Province and the Northern Cape account for a total of 1%.
• The top media sites in South Africa according to the Alexa top 100 are:

1.    Facebook.com
2.    Google.co.za
3.    Google.com
4.    Yahoo.com
5.    YouTube.com
6.    Live.com (Windows Live)
7.    Wikipedia
8.    Blogger.com
9.    MSN.com
10.  News24.com

Miscellaneous Facts and Figures

• Facebook: There are 759,292 people in the South Africa network.
• There are 3561 South African blogs on Afrigator.
• South Africa was rated in Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 E-Readiness Report as the 35th best place in the world to do e-business, a ranking which dropped to number 39 in the 2008 E-Readiness report.
• The Internet World stats for South Africa reveal:

- A total of 378 000 broadband Internet subscribers as of September 2008, per ITU.
- A total of 4 590 000 Internet users as of December 2008 (compared to 2 400 000 in December 2000).