• South Africa leads the way in mobile usage when it comes to online search, with more than half (55%) of all South African traffic from mobiles in September 2014.
• Over a 12 month period South Africa leads on mobile usage (39% of all traffic). Worldwide 36%, UK 35% for the same year.
• In Sept South Africa was the first region to break the halfway mark, when more than half of all traffic came from mobile users (55%). UK came second for the same period was 44%
• Tablet usage in SA grown from 6% three years ago to 10% of all traffic (last 12 months)

South Africa leads the way in mobile usage for search according to new research by private healthcare search engine WhatClinic.com, which has over one million unique visitors to its site every month.

In the past five years, mobile and tablet traffic to the site has increased significantly in every country around the world, but nowhere as much as in South Africa, where now more than half of all traffic through the global healthcare search engine is from mobile devices.

At the same time, desktop traffic has dwindled. In 2009, desktop traffic accounted for 97% of all SA traffic to the site, on a par with the global average of 96%. Over the past five years, that has fallen to around half, down to 51% for the past 12 months. Month-by-month mobile usage is increasing however and in September it peaked with 55% mobile traffic. October remained high at 54%. Tablet remains static at roughly at 10% for both Sept and Oct 2014.

5 year traffic split in SA from Whatclinic.com

In terms of what mobiles are being used, iPhone leads the way in South Africa, accounting for more than 10% of all traffic to site. Apple’s iPad has the lion’s share of tablet traffic, accounting for 9.8% of the 10% tablet traffic to site.

The runner up in South Africa is the Samsung Galaxy, which accounts for 4.2% of all traffic. Unlike the rest of the world South Africa is clinging to some of the old favourites when it comes to mobile devices. Blackberry and Nokia handsets are still in the top 10, unlike the UK where iPhone usage dominates at 34% of all traffic, but with versions of Samsung Galaxy filling every other slot in the UK leaderboard. Here are the top 10 mobile devices as reported by WhatClinic.com

A 2011 Nielson report* stated that 29 million South Africans were using mobile phones, compared to only 6 million with personal computers. So perhaps it is not surprising that mobile traffic has far outstripped desktop in South Africa.  The same report points out that SA is fifth in the world for mobile data, ahead of the US in 7th.

Emily Ross, Director of WhatClinic.com, comments:

“The trends reported here are interesting – but not surprising. Internet access has transformed how both consumers and businesses in South Africa interact. It has never been so important to have an online presence for your business, and to understand the technological behaviour of consumers. Ensuring you can be found and contacted by mobile users is essential.

We believe that network strength is a major concern for mobile users in SA, so page loading times and mobile optimised sites are essential for businesses who want to be found online.

Also – when building and testing new sites, Blackberry and Nokia are still in the running for site access, so key pages, forms and contact numbers should still be tested on these devices to ensure visibility”

For more information, go to http://www.whatclinic.com

Notes to Editors:

*http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2011/mobile-phones-dominate-in-south-africa.html