Marketing Society of Rwanda joins the African Marketing Confederation
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SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Report says TikTok is shaking up the SA social media landscape
By our News Team | 2023
Facebook remains number one in South Africa, but TikTok has seen ‘explosive growth’ and surpassed Instagram to claim second position.
The ‘Big Five’ social media platforms in South Africa have been shaken up as TikTok leaps past Instagram into second place and challenges the dominant social network, Facebook, in several segments.
This is one of the key findings of the South African Social Media Landscape 2023 study, released by brand intelligence consultancy Ornico and market research house World Wide Worx.
Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash
Facebook, with a commanding 56.7% penetration among South Africans aged 15 and over who are living in cities and towns, continues to dominate the social media scene.
However, TikTok has seen explosive growth and surpassed Instagram to claim second position at 30.6%. Notably, TikTok’s appeal extends beyond its under-15 target audience, making significant inroads into the 15+ market.
Instagram remains a popular choice among South African social media users, boasting 27.6% penetration, while Twitter retains a significant following despite its troubled takeover by Elon Musk – standing at 22.5%. LinkedIn is far behind, but its 14.7% penetration is healthy for a professional networking platform that does not hold youth appeal.
Data gathered from a variety of sources
Data used in the South African Social Media Landscape 2023 report is based on Ask Afrika’s Target Group Index (TGI), which surveys 16,000 South Africans every six months.
Ornico and World Wide Worx also conduct a survey of social media usage by South Africa’s biggest brands, and integrate the findings with several additional data sources.
“The youth audience is key to social media in South Africa,” says Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx. “When a platform like TikTok, which has deep reach among those aged under 15, breaks through to this extent in the older youth market, as well as among young adults, we can see the landscape undergoing a significant shift.”
The study highlights the correlation between social media platforms’ popularity and the proportion of highly active users. Facebook emerges as the leader, with nearly 8 out of 10 users being highly active. TikTok and Instagram exhibit similar levels of user engagement, while LinkedIn has a relatively small proportion of highly active users.
This distinction implies that platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram are deeply integrated into users’ lifestyles, whereas LinkedIn is more closely associated with their ‘workstyles’, says Goldstuck.
You can download the report here.
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