Most Popular Mobile Apps in Africa
Apps are widely used in today’s digital economy. There is an app for (nearly) everything, ten years after Apple patented the term. As a result, studying app usage trends may provide a wealth of information.
The emergence of sports betting as a popular pastime has led to the growing popularity of leisure-related activities such as gaming and socializing. A major example is the Betway casino online app where most of the registered users do it for the fun that comes with it.
It’s worth noting that the majority of Africans use Android phones since they’re less expensive to buy.
Whatsapp is King in Africa
Whatsapp, the Facebook-owned messaging application, is the most popular in all five African nations surveyed. Notably, the app does not rank in the top ten in the United States, and it barely ranks fourth in the United Kingdom. Unlike in the West, where it’s common to use a mix of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and SMS, WhatsApp is the de facto and sole social media/communications tool for large swaths of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa (where internet connections are less reliable and more expensive).
Social media apps are widely used
Much has been made of it. Zoom, which is a top three app in the United States and number one in the United Kingdom, is a top five app in four of the five African nations tested, with Tanzania being the lone outlier. Similarly, Snapchat, the popular app among millennials in the West, is also popular in Africa, ranking in the top 15 in all five nations and in the top five in four of them. Given that Africa has the world’s youngest population (60 percent of the continent’s population is under the age of 25), it’s no surprise that youth-oriented applications are popular.
South Africans have no issues spending money online. Whether it’s ordering food from Mr. D Food, Uber Eats, or Debonairs Pizza, or shopping with Wish, Takealot, and Zando, mobile commerce is huge in the nation—it accounts for six of the top 20 applications, more than any other country.
Nigerians like socializing online. More than half of the country’s top 20 applications are connected to communications or social media, the highest percentage of any of the countries assessed. And, apart from the United States and the United Kingdom, Nigeria is the only country where Twitter is a top 20 app, save for the recent ban due to policy violations. Betting is big in Nigeria, and Betway is among the most downloaded apps in the country where betting remains not over regulated.
Kenyans like watching videos on the internet. Kenya is the only nation where TikTok and TikTok Lite both rank in the top 20 apps. Kenya has the most video-oriented apps in the top 20 with Viusasa, Vskit, and Showmax.
MTN has a stronghold in Ghana. MTN has two of Ghana’s top 15 applications (MyMTN and Ayoba), but no other nation has two telecom apps among the top twenty.
Tanzanians consume a broad range of online content. Tanzania is the sole market where Youtube is one of the top 20 apps, one of only two where a music streaming service (Boomplay) is in the top 20, and one of only two markets where a game is in the top 20. (Subway Princess Runner). Tanzania has the most content diversity among the top 20 apps, ranging from Youtube to Boomplay to Subway Princess Runner to Swahili video content app AzamTV Max to Likee.
