Mobile Web Traffic In Africa Jumped 21% from Q1 to Q2 2008

Mobile advertising agency, AdMob has published their July Mobile Metrics Report, which focuses on increasing usage of the Mobile Web in Africa and worldwide mobile browser marketshare.

Mobile Internet usage is growing across Africa, with particularly strong growth in Nigeria and Egypt. AdMob has seen traffic increase 21 percent since the company began tracking the Africa market in Q1 2008. The report also noted that the Nokia dominates device market share throughout Africa, with 50.6 percent of the market. Nokia is the most popular device manufacturer in the top five countries of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania.

Worldwide Nokia and Openwave are the top browsers with 34 percent and 29 percent share, respectively. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm, and Safari (Apple) all had less than 5 percent market share around the world.

Other key data from the report:

• Worldwide traffic grew 18 percent and US requests grew 5.8 percent month over month, while UK traffic was basically flat with a -0.5 percent change from June.
• Traffic from Smartphones continued to increase, while 25.6 percent of worldwide ad requests were from Smartphones in July, up from 24.3 percent in June.
• The Nokia N95 has overtaken the SonyEricsson k800i to be the top device in the UK with an 8.3% market share in July.
• The Philippines has been added to the report this month due to continuing strong mobile Web growth in the country. The report shows that 34 percent of traffic comes from Smartphones, and over 20 percent of traffic comes from devices with XL screen size, both metrics significantly higher than other countries. The Sony PlayStation Portable and iTouch are both in the Top 20 devices.

The AdMob monthly metrics report is designed to provide insights into trends in the mobile ecosystem. The July report and all previous reports are available for free download at: www.admob.com/metrics.

Posted to the site on 22nd August 2008