Digital in 2018: Report shows fast growing internet use in Africa

According to the Digital in 2018 Report released recently, there are 16.4 million Internet users in the country with Internet penetration at 15 percent. Out of those 3.6 million are active social media users. The report states that well over half of the world’s population is now online, with the latest data showing that nearly a quarter of a billion new users came online for the first time in 2017.
Africa has seen the fastest growth rate with the number of Internet users across the continent increasing by more than 20 percent year on year.
Data on Ethiopia shows that annual growth for Internet users is at 37 percent and the number of active social media users is growing by 20 percent. Findings show that majority of Ethiopians access the Internet from a mobile device. Top three most searched teams on Google are ‘Facebook’, ‘News’ and ‘Ethiopian’.
According to the report, much of this year’s growth in Internet users has been driven by more affordable smart phones and mobile data plans. More than 200 million people got their first mobile device in 2017, and two thirds of the world’s 7.6 billion people now have a mobile phone.
Data also shows that more than half of the handsets in use today are smart devices, so it is increasingly easy for people to enjoy a rich Internet experience. Social media use continues to grow rapidly and the number of people using the platform in each country has increased by almost one million users everyday during the past 12 months.
More than 3 billion people around the world now use social media with 9 out of 10 of those users accessing their chosen platform via mobile devices.