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The South African
Internet-user population passed the 20-million mark for
the first time last year, reaching 21 million, and is
expected to grow to at least 22,5 million users this
year. The Internet Access in South Africa
2017 study, released recently by World Wide Worx,
shows that South Africa will reach the 40% Internet
penetration mark this year.
"Reaching the point at which we can say every second
adult South African is connected to the Internet is a
major landmark because Internet access is becoming
synonymous with economic access," said Reshaad Sha,
chief strategy officer and executive director of Dark
Fibre Africa, a fibre connectivity provider that
supported the study.
The results contrast with a United Nations report last
year, which found that almost 75% of people in Africa
were "non-users''.
The report reveals that the single most common use of
the Internet among South African adults was for
communication (31%), followed by social networking
(24,9%), information (23,7%) and entertainment at 22,1%.
E-mail is reported by only 16% of respondents,
"indicating that it is becoming a less important element
of the communications mix as social media becomes a
default channel", the report said.
Shopping and finance were cited by only 15% of
respondents, confirming previous World Wide Worx
research that showed e-commerce was still not a major
element of South African retail in general.
"The findings emphasise the potential of the Internet to
enhance lives when we have greater penetration across
all segments and demographics," said Arthur Goldstuck,
managing director of World Wide Worx. "Over time, we
will see higher proportions of people engaging in a
wider range of activity, but the barriers to more active
use will first have to come down." ¡V Source:
www.timeslive.co.za |
