Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, comments, “The online sectors where South Africans spend most of their time highlights the power of the Internet as an information resource. Almost one in every four minutes online is accounted for by a news and weather site.”
Based on South African data only, categories where online South Africans spend most of their time are:
| Rank | Category | % of total time | Total time (hours) | Rank by unique browsers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | News & Weather | 23% | 1 143 605 | 1 |
| 2 | Media & Publishing | 16% | 802 044 | 2 |
| 3 | Entertainment | 12% | 631 017 | 3 |
| 4 | Travel | 11% | 557 026 | 4 |
| 5 | Email, Messaging & Chat | 11% | 545 838 | 6 |
| 6 | Employment | 6% | 315 219 | 9 |
| 7 | Directories & Search | 5% | 263 826 | 5 |
| 8 | Sport | 4% | 217 145 | 7 |
| 9 | Financial Services | 2% | 125 434 | 8 |
| 10 | Real Estate | 2% | 87 418 | 12 |
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, it's also worth noting that the popularity of a sector isn't necessarily aligned with how much total time it accounts for. Employment, for example, is the ninth most popular category but ranks as the sixth leading sector by total time.
Publishers where online South Africans spend most of their time are:
Publishers accounting for the most time spent by SA Internet population – August 2007
| Rank | Publisher | % of total time | Total time (hours) | Rank by unique browsers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Media24 | 27% | 949 076 | 1 |
| 2 | MWeb | 11% | 376 047 | 4 |
| 3 | Interface | 11% | 369 028 | 3 |
| 4 | Independent Online | 10% | 353 321 | 2 |
| 5 | CareerJunction | 5% | 193 038 | 9 |
| 6 | MSN | 5% | 164 786 | 6 |
| 7 | Ananzi | 4% | 124 154 | 5 |
| 8 | Johncom | 3% | 109 142 | 8 |
| 9 | SuperSport Zone | 3% | 106 029 | 7 |
| 10 | Auto Trader | 3% | 98 780 | 11 |
Says Burmaster, “The dominance of Media24 in the South African landscape is astonishing when one considers that just over one in every four minutes online is spent on [its] sites – and when comparing that to the most dominant brands in other countries.
“MSN, for example, is the most dominant brand in the UK in terms of time, yet accounts for ‘just' 12% of total time. Similarly in Australia it's Nine/MSN which also accounts for 12% and, in the US, it's AOL which accounts for ‘just' 9% of total time.”
