MOBILE USER BEHAVIOUR The growth of the mobile market has resulted in a greater need for getting more insight into the growing main market in countries like South Africa. Unlike with traditional advertising, the consumer can now speak back. By entering into a dialogue with their brand they are just as likely to correct or criticise as they are to praise and promote. The mobile medium is too dynamically connected to the market’s lives for superficial song and dance strategies. Real, personal level market insights are now essential in connecting with this consumer. Social media communities are growing rapidly and more than anywhere they reflect the dynamics of South Africa as they occur in everyday life. South Africa had 5.3 million Internet users and over 3 million people on Facebook at the end of 2010. Mobile phones are a business necessity to Africa’s growing economy. Informal traders in rural communities now use mobiles to communicate and connect with the world via mobile phones to grow their businesses. The rural communities, with limited access to electricity, use mobile phones as their only Internet source. A recent World Wide Worx study indicated that 27% of rural dwellers and a further 37% of all urban South Africans access the Internet via their mobile phones. With 18% Smart Phone penetration in South Africa, communicating directly with the consumer is at record highs. Never before has the marketer been able to reach their market so instantly and personally. Opera Software and On Device Research also conducted a survey which revealed that mobile Internet is the only Internet access method for many users; they have been dubbed the ‘Mobile Only’ Internet Generation. South Africa has emerged as the largest base of the mobile only Internet generation after South Africa, followed by India. A gender comparison in the study shows that mobile Internet users are heavily male dominated (95.2%) while female comprise only 5% of the total users. Mobile Internet users are also dominated by young people with 94% aged between 13 and 34. The young and male skew is the typical early adopter profile. In many countries social networking has been the catalyst for the mobile Internet boom. Social networking requires fast page loading due to its interactive nature. The browsing experience on mobile is the key catalyst to attract content purchasing. Once users are comfortable with the browsing experience, they are more likely to taken on mobile purchasing. According to other statistics from Google Mobile, top searches in Kenya were Football
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