CC image courtesy of The World Bank.
Social media platform Facebook and internet search giant Google are the two most popular internet services in Africa, according to mobile software provider Opera.
The company published a study, entitled State of the Mobile Web, documenting the ten most popular websites in African countries.
“Facebook is four times as prevalent in the top spot of most accessed domain for African Opera Mini users, with 41 top placements, compared to Google’s nine places,” the company said.
HumanIPO reported this year Facebook had over one billion users and has set its sights on Africa for further user acquisitions.
The company forms part of the Internet.org initiative, planning to provide five billion people around the world with internet access.
Google has also expressed interest in connecting the “unconnected” by launching solar powered balloons over the South Pacific ocean to beam internet access to rural areas.
Opera said other international domains, including Wikipedia, Yahoo and YouTube, also made it into the top ten.
“Local websites are, to a lesser degree, represented in the top-ten lists for each country,” Opera said.
“A closer look at these sites shows some interesting differences in the various countries. For example, Botswana has educational sites such as Botswana Educational Council very highly ranked, presumably to check enrollment and grades. Other countries, one being Libya, have local lifestyle sites like Sedty high on the most-visited lists,” it said.
