Leading social media platforms in South Africa 2023

WhatsApp is the most popular social media in South Africa. As of the third quarter of 2023, some 94 percent of internet users in the country used the messaging app. Facebook and Tiktok followed, with a penetration rate of around 88 percent and 74 percent, respectively. The potential audience of Facebook that can be reached with advertisements amounted to 22.2 million. 

Internet and social media users keep increasing

The number of internet users in South Africa has registered a growth since 2018. In 2022, some 48.4 million South Africans accessed the internet, compared to 36 million four years earlier. Consequently, active social media users also faced a boom in number. By January 2022, individuals actively using social media platforms increased to 28 million, nearly three times higher than in 2014.

Mobile phones dominate internet access

In 2022, 47.8 million South Africans used mobile devices to surf the internet. Mobile phones were the main devices used to access the internet in the country. As of the third quarter of 2021, 96 percent of the internet users used them to connect to the internet, while 86.2 percent used a laptop or desktop computer to be online. Furthermore, mobile phones generated close to 79 percent of the web traffic as of late 2022