Internet usage in Uganda grew by one million last year, study finds

These figures are contained in the Digital 2023 Global Overview Report compiled jointly by Meltwater and We Are Social. The report claims to explore what people are really doing on the internet, social media, mobile devices, and online shopping platforms around the world. 

Analysing the data specific to Uganda, local digital media analyst and micro-blogger John Birungi Babirukamu notes that the growth in internet usage was lower than his prediction of 1.35-million new users. Similarly, the total name of users falls below the Uganda Communications Commission’s expected number of 13.9-million users.

In a LinkedIn post, he says betting information still dominates the top Google searches in Uganda, while local music, comedy and translated movies (by VJ Junior & VJ Jingo) dominated activity on YouTube.

LinkedIn proves a big growth winner in 2022

LinkedIn was a big winner in 2022, growing by 23.5% to hit the 1-million monthly active users mark in Uganda. It is still very male-dominated, with 62.3% male users.

Twitter grew by 43.7% to make 601,000 monthly active users, with a 77.1% male user base.

Facebook usage fell by 26% to about 1.85-million monthly active users. Babirukamu says this is a direct result of the government ban on Facebook usage, (implemented in 2021) and the platform’s reduced appeal to Gen Z users.

Instagram dropped by 23.1%, down to 445,000 users as people migrated to TikTok. Usage is 56.1% male, and 43.9% female.

“While I deduce that TikTok grew massively among Gen Z and Millennials, we, unfortunately don’t get statistics from TikTok for the whole of Africa,” he said.

The Digital 2023 Global Overview Report contains a range of African-focused digital information. For African marketers looking to potentially increase their spend on digital, one of the key takeaways is that there are still huge unconnected populations in many countries.

In Nigeria, for example, nearly 45% of the population remains offline. In Kenya, the figure is 67% and in Tanzania it is 68%. Mozambique has 79% of people offline, and Ethiopia has 83%. In Somalia and South Sudan, the figure is 90% and above.