These numbers surprised me so I searched for data to compare them with.\u00a0 I found two sources, AdMob’s latest Mobile Metrics Report<\/a> (PDF) and AdMob Analytics<\/a> which I run on the mobile version of this site.<\/p>\n
The International Monetary Fund<\/em><\/strong> publishes a\u00a0 document<\/a> that groups all the nations of the world into two categories; “Advanced Economies<\/em>” and “Emerging and Developing Economies<\/em>“, based on a number of economic factors. The top ten countries on both the AdMob and Opera reports include seven from the IMF’s list of Emerging and Developing Economies.\u00a0 AdMob’s are Indonesia, India, South Africa, Philippines, Romania, Nigeria and Malaysia. Opera’s list includes Russia, Indonesia, India, Ukraine. South Africa, Poland and Egypt.\u00a0 Developing countries in Asia and Eastern Europe have been generating significant mobile web traffic for several years but the heavy traffic from Africa is a new phenomenon. Africa has less wealth and has taken longer to get to that point of significant mobile web use but it’s happening now. Not only are developing nations among the top countries in use of the web on mobiles, they are also the nations with the highest growth rates in its use and this seems especially true of Africa.<\/p>\n
Opera’s latest State Of the Mobile Web Report for the month of September focuses on Africa. It’s an eye opener for anyone with a US or Euro-centric view of Internet use on cell phones.\u00a0 The report, which tracks the usage of Opera Mini, indicates that traffic from Africa is up 180% since January, 2008. Gains in some African countries are incredibly high.\u00a0 September over January page views from Egypt increased 2300%, Nigeria 1690%, Libya 8537%, Zambia, 1200%, Swaziland\u00a0 1700%.\u00a0 Opera … Continue reading