The advent of mobile apps has orchestrated a paradigm shift in the world’s interaction, bridging distances while also, pulling the world together. Redefining the meaning of global, as the world has now been shrunk into a community.
Africa has witnessed this revolution and their own way, have contributed to it, becoming one of the largest markets of social media and mobile apps in the world today. However, in spite of the presence of locally made apps, international apps still hold much ground in the social, business and political scene in Africa.
Here’s our countdown of the most used foreign mobile applications in Africa:
WhatsApp: This is by far the most used mobile app across Africa. WhatsApp lets you message and call friends and family whilst limiting most barriers. WhatsApp messenger is basically a ubiquitous medium of communication in Africa considering how widespread it is used.
Since the advent of WhatsApp, Africans now have a wide variety of ways to communicate even when mobile networks are down. Aside from the voice and video call feature, the application allows file transfer, live status updates and group connections.
WhatsApp has been vital in driving internet adoption in Africa. In Zimbabwe, the app was responsible for about half of all internet data in 2017. Interestingly, WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook recently rolled out WhatsApp Business, a standalone app that targets small business owners across Africa.
Facebook: Aside from WhatsApp being the most used app, Facebook has also been registered in the mind of the average Africans and it has changed the continent is so many amazing ways.
It’s a platform where people connect and reconnect with their friends globally, and has successfully changed the way Africans connect, network and do business. Facebook has grown its African user base to 170 million, 94% of whom use mobile means to access the social network.
Facebook, with more than 1.8 billion monthly active users remains the world’s most popular social network… by far.
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Instagram: Instagram is one of the most vibrant and accessible mobile apps of all time and it achieved this status by pandering to the youth. With 1 billion users and a host of photo-editing filters, it’s a great platform for Africans to show off their business, artistic side and share some photos of their own.
Twitter: after coming into existence in 2006, the social platform has positioned itself as the home of live, global chatter. It has cemented itself as a digital galleria, and a place for activism, businesses and politicians to engage directly with people and making big announcements along the way.
According to the How Africa Tweets report which was conducted by Portland, it was revealed that Twitter continues to provide an important platform for political discourse in Africa. The report says that since 2015, 1.6 billion tweets and over 5,000 hashtags have been politically related. In the same report, it was stated that Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana top the list of tweets in Africa.
All these apps are great and their importance to Africa cannot be overstressed despite being foreign apps. With the rate of internet penetration in Africa, a time is coming when they will become a requirement for sustainable social and business life in Africa
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