SA users ‘unfriending’ Facebook

File photo: AP

File photo: AP

Published Apr 8, 2013

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Cape Town - Nearly one million South Africans quit Facebook in the last six months.

Statistics from social media monitoring company SocialBakers show 967 220 fewer South Africans logged on to the social network in the last six months, a decline of 17.7 percent.

There were 5 467 000 users.

South Africa is ranked 33rd on SocialBakers’ list of countries using Facebook, between Ecuador and Morocco – both had an increase in users.

Durban doesn’t make its list of top cities using Facebook, but Joburg is ranked at number 67 with 807 280 users.

Its statistics showed that the largest age group of South African Facebook users was 18-to-24 years age bracket, with a total of 1 679 620 users.It was followed by users in the next age bracket, 25-to-34 years.

Male/female user ratio was split evenly down the middle, bucking the trend of more women using the website across the world.

The South African Social Media Landscape 2012 study, conducted by companies World Wide Worx and Fusewire, found that the fastest growing age group among users in South Africa was the over-60s.

It also found that the number of Facebook users in South Africa had grown at a rate of about 100 000 new users a month.

Mike Wronski, the managing director of information analysts Fuseware, said in the study that it had been expected users would grow tired of their online lives.

“Social media fatigue has set in for the more over-active users. But most users are arriving in this world for the first time, and new users are going to keep coming. It’s mainstream today but tomorrow it will be pervasive.”

In an article on website BusinessTech, Wronski said he believed that Facebook had lost its novelty over time due to new platforms, the introduction of advertising content on to newsfeeds and problems with its mobile offerings. - Cape Times

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