Businesstech.co.za reports that social media monitoring firm SocialBakers ranks South Africa as number 32 of countries with the most Facebook users at 5.537 million and a penetration rate of 11.30%. However, almost 923,000 users have closed their profiles or stopped using the site over the past three months. This is a decline of 16.67%.
According to Michal Wronski of information analysts Fuseware Facebook has lost its novelty over time. He says SA’s and global youth are shifting towards platforms that offer a simpler real-time interface like Whatsapp, 2go and Twitter. Facebook has also made moves to inject brand and advertising content into news feeds, which has had negative feedback.
On top of this Facebook’s mobile experience on smart phones has had glitches and performance issues, and as more people use social media on their smart phones they are opting for apps with a better user experience.
Top of the list for users, the United States saw 3.714 million users leave Facebook over the past three months, a loss of 2.25% to 163.07 million – but in second place, Brazil accrued 1.864 million users, to 66.55 million.
In Africa, top ranked country, Egypt (19), gained 146,240 users or 1.17% to 13.01 million.
