With a population of 170 million, 130 million active lines, 66 million of which are used to access the internet, Nigeria is the biggest internet market in Africa. Between 2000 and 2013, internet penetration grew from a paltry 0.06 percent to 38 percent, teledensity is now 93 percent and there are indications that this trend will continue well into 2020.
The country will remain the largest internet market on the continent in the near future because it has a large youth population (one-third of the population is between the 10-24 years age bracket) and a growing middle class (estimated at 23 percent-appx. 39 million-of the population by Renaissance Capital in 2011). Nigeria has a large number of the two classes of individuals which traditionally drive internet usage: the middle class and young people.
The size of this market makes it a fertile ground for online business, internet advertising, software sale and Internet service providers. There have been few enquires to fully understand the virtual footprints of the vast majority of Nigerians, at the BRIU we have tried to study it through a number of research methodologies, results of one of which is presented below.
In an online survey which captured the behavior of respondents drawn from Lagos, the FCT, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ogun and Rivers online, we discovered that the main reason respondents browse the internet is to search for information. Other major reasons include sending emails and work.
As many as 84 percent are online for information gathering purposes, 81 percent use the platform mainly to send e-mails, while for 76 percent it is part of their work tools. Though social media is important to users, only 45 percent of those sampled see it as the major reason they go online.
From the responses, it can be inferred that there is less buying and selling activity online among respondents compared to other online activities. Only 7 percent of them see buying and selling as a major reason they are on the internet, while 19 percent see paying for services as a major reason for being online. Finally, 26 percent of all respondents consider checking bank accounts as a major reason for going online.
We believe there is a vacuum in online sales and marketing in Nigeria even as internet penetration continues to grow. But there is evidence that more individuals have embraced internet banking compared to buying and selling online. Trust, access to online payment infrastructure and knowledge of how these processes work have been identified as clogs in the wheel of online buying and selling business in Nigeria. We believe that continued reinforcement of publicity on how the whole process works and how safe and easy it is can significantly tilt the equation in favour of online buying and selling by our respondents.
Viewed from the point of view of gender, the major activities carried out online are the same. But while 6 percent of females see buying items online as a major reason for being on the internet, only 1 percent of males have the same view. Also, while 8 percent of female respondents see paying for services as a major reason for being on the internet, only 4 percent of males have the same view.
Social media sites with the buzz
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, My Space, Tumblr and Instagram are among the social media platforms investigated in the survey. Of the lot, 73 percent of the respondents said they are active on Facebook daily, 35 percent are active on Twitter, while LinkedIn accounts for 25 percent of social media presence. On the other hand, Tumblr, My Space and Instagram are yet to make any impact on respondents. Their combined usage is less than 2 percent of respondents.
All females that took the survey say they visit Facebook regularly, while more than three quarter use Twitter. Sixty-four percent of respondents say they use LinkedIn and Skype, respectively, while Google+ and Whatsapp are used by half of female respondents, respectively. Less popular sites among females include Instagram and Pintrest. Both sites account for less than 15 percent of female traffic.
Acknowledgement: Businessdayonline, TUN TV
No comments:
Post a Comment