Nigeria traffic hits 81%, still ranks world’s most mobilized country-Twinpine

Nigeria has retained its position as world’s most mobilized country, as Twinpine’s 2017 “Nigeria Mobile Trends Report” shows Nigeria gained 5 per cent from the previous report in its mobile traffic.

This is coming on the heels of a similar report in 2016, in which Nigeria was placed ahead as the most mobile telecommunications induced nation, with 76 per cent of the internet traffic coming through mobile.

The latest report indicates the country maintains its lead as statistics by Worldometer, NCC, Stat Counter put the total (human) population at 192 million (estimated); 142.6 active lines mobile at 74 per cent mobile penetration;

91.5million mobile Internet users at 47 per cent mobile Internet mobile penetration; 30 per cent smartphone penetration;

Nigeria is now head of India and South Africa with 79 per cent and 78 per cent internet traffic coming through mobile, respectively.

Multi-Sim Phones Usage
Nigeria is also notable as the destination for the usage of multi-sim phones in the world at 66 per cent, followed by Bangladesh (63 per cent) and Tanzania (53 per cent), while India and Phillipines as the least on the table with 48 per cent each.

Share of Desktop versus mobile traffic
In Nigeria, mobile traffic overtook desktop traffic since 2012, and has continued to dominate since then. From the study, it was established that Mobile Traffic grew from 73 per cent in 2014 to 81 per cent in 2017 while the Desktop Traffic decreased from 25 per cent to 13 per cent during the period under review.

Web Usage by Device Vendors
According to the report, Samsung leads “Web Usage by Device Vendor” accounting for 25 per cent of the market; Apple (20 per cent), Tecno (13 per cent), Infinix (9.5 per cent), Blackberry (9.5 per cent), Gionee (5 per cent), Nokia brands account for 4.5 per cent, Microsoft (4.5 per cent), HTC (4 per cent) while other brands put together account for remaining unknown (7.5 per cent).

Web Usage by OS
Android is clearly still the preferred mobile operating system used in Nigeria. Other operating systems selling in the market are iOS, RIM, Windows Phone, Nokia OS, Symbian, LG proprietary and Samsung proprietary.

Market Share by Mobile Operator as at June 2017
According to the report which reflects NCC’s statistics showing MTN accounts for 37 per cent of the market share followed by Glo 26 per cent, Airtel 24 per cent and 9Mobile 13 per cent.

However, on the growth of Active Mobile Subscribers by Operator from 2014 – 2017, Glo and Airtel have remained most gainers, while MTN and 9Mobile have had their subscriber base reduced over time.

According to the report, Glo grew its customer base from 28,486,530 in 2014 to 37,411,407 as at June 2017; Airtel 27,989,580 (2014) to 34,656,605 (2017); while MTN has a decline from 60,493,053 (in 2014) to 53,093,756 in 2017 (June) likewise 9Mobile from 21,559,667 in (2014) to 18,022,674 as at June 2017.

Top 5 States with Active Voice Subscription (VS)
The Twinpine report quotes the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which identified Lagos state as leading with 20 million the highest voice subscription in Nigeria amounting to 12 per cent of the total VS, followed by Ogun State, Kano, Oyo and Kaduna States.

Also, Lagos leads the active internet subscription but Abuja enters the top 5 in terms of states internet subscription in Nigeria.

Market Share Of Mobile Browser
Opera is still the preferred mobile; it leads the table with 53.28 per cent of the market share; Chrome 20.18 per cent; UC Browser 13.8 per cent; Blackberry 3.57 per cent; Android 2.92 per cent; Safari 1.75 per cent; IE Mobile 1.73 per cent; Samsung Internet 1.05 per cent; Puffin 0.98 per cent and others 0.75 per cent.

Nigerian behavioural studies hinted on the future opportunities of other sectors outside apps and entertainment in Nigeria; 48 per cent of the people surveyed indicated that they use mLearning apps.

From the respondents, 35 per cent have used reading app; 42 per cent- banking app; 35 per cent- healthcare related app; 32 per cent- taxi/booking app and 32 per cent- food delivery.

What online activities do Nigerians do on their smartphones & computer at least weekly?
Social Media is the most popular activity performed by Nigerians weekly on their mobile phones as 70 per cent of the respondents use smartphones, while 9 per cent visit social networks using destop computers;

per cent use smartphone to listen to music, 1.5 per cent use desktop; 2 per cent look up for maps on smartphone; 9 per cent use smartphone to search for product information while 3 per cent use desktops;

only 3 per cent use smartphone to make online purchases; 19 per cent use smartphone to watch online videos, 7 per cent use desktops; 5 per cent play games on smartphones, only 2 per cent use desktops;

28 per cent check their mails on smartphone, 8 per cent use desktop computers; 37 per cent use smartphone to visit search engines, while 7 per cent resort to desktops.

mCommerce
63 per cent of all M-Commerce orders in Nigeria come from mobile. Nigerian customers who use mobile phones to shop online buy a wide range of products, the top three are: mobile phone, beauty and perfumes and women’s clothings.

Average price of smartphones have dropped significantly between 2014 and 2016, and sale of smartphones have gone up.

Average price of smartphones reduced from $165-$216 (2014) to $99-$117 in 2016; booming smartphone sales (2014-2016) recorded over 394 per cent growth. More men at 61 per cent shop online than women 39 per cent in Nigeria.

Mobile Purchase Interest of Nigerians
Fashion items (26.3 per cent) and mobile apps (22.8 per cent) top the list of things people buy with their mobile phones.

Others are, music (15.8 per cent); games (13.2 per cent); Ebooks (5.3 per cent); videos (7.9 per cent; electronics (14 per cent ) and home appliances (14 per cent).

Interestingly, the report shows 66.9 per cent of Nigerians have bought an item with their mobile phone.

As 33.1 per cent haven’t bought things using their mobile phone, 38.7 per cent cited fear of buying fake items as the major reason; 7.5 per cent delivery delays; slow internet 7.5 per cent, delivery changes account for the remaining percentage.

However, 58.5 per cent of Nigerians have paid for a mobile app before, though Nigerians are not too keen on in-app purchases, only 42.6 per cent have made an in-app purchase.

Main Reasons Why Nigerians Uninstall Apps
Large size (28 per cent) and too many notifications (17.5 per cent) top the chart of reasons Nigerian uninstall apps. Other reasons are too slow (9 per cent); too complex (7.9 per cent); too many ads (15.9 per cent); privacy (11.1 per cent) and not the expected value (10.6 per cent).

Mobile Money
71.5 per cent of Nigerians, the report says, use a mobile banking app. Out of the number, 12.7 per cent use it as option for saving money; 63.6 per cent for money transfer; 42.7 per cent to check balance; 36.4 per cent pay bills with mobile money apps; 47.3 per cent for airtime purchases and 17.3 per cent don’t use mobile apps.

Payments Made Directly To Mobile Phone Bill
Nigeria tops the chart with carrier billing (paying for items directly from the phone bill) at 42 per cent. Twinpine quoting Mobile Money Report, MEF 2017 report said that 9 per cent of Nigerians have made an in-store mobile payment; increasing from its previous value of 6 per cent in 2014.

Also, average monthly transactions in mobile grew from a transaction value of 5millionUSD in 2011 to 142.8millionUSD in 2016, according to KPMG Fintech in Nigeria Report, 2016.

Number of transactions performed using the USSD service has more than doubled the number of transactions on mobile banking platforms for banks offering USSD- Mobile Money Report, MEF 2017.

Mobile Video
Many Nigerians prefer to watch short online videos, especially when via smartphones as 29 per cent prefer to watch short online videos via their smartphone.

The report also shows the frequency at which online videos are watched shows that 27 per cent of Nigerian watch videos online daily; 25 per cent weekly; 12 per cent less than monthly; 12 per cent monthly and 23 per cent never watched videos online.

“Last year, we released our 2016 Mobile Trends Report which highlighted key stats and analysis of the Nigerian mobile space to celebrate our 5th Anniversary.

“This year, the Nigerian economy has taken a different turn and as a result, there has been a significant shift in the market trends and behaviour of end users.

This report which is downloadable via http://twinpinenetwork.com/2017-nigeria-mobile-trend-report/, serves as a mobile trend and advertising behaviour guide for marketers to find effective ways to continually deliver maximum ROI,” Chika Umeh, Insight Lead, Twinpine said.