Market Insights South Africa & top 10 websites

Coronavirus resulted in a major increase in web traffic across the board but most notably across the News category of websites. In particular, massive month on month growth can be seen across News24, Fin24, Citizen and BusinessInsider who all recorded more than 50% growth in Unique Browsers. Typical monthly variances in traffic for these top 10 sites is in the region of around 10%, which highlights the massive increase in online browsing during March 2020.

news24.com

Page Views 135,039,974  – PV MoM change 140% – Unique browsers 12,069,885 – UB MoM change 103%

iol.co.za

Page Views 37,510,974 – PV MoM change 18% – Unique browsers 7,684,965 – UB MoM change 32%

timeslive.co.za

Page Views 38,340,392 – PV MoM change 44% – Unique Browsers 7,389,704 – UB MoM change 37%

businesstech.co.za

Page Views – 15,329,981 PV MoM change 41% – Unique Browsers 5,592,804 – UB MoM change 48%

thesouthafrican.com

Page Views 16,677,085 – PV MoM change 27% – Unique Browsers 5,056,594 – UB MoM change 18%

fin24.com

Page Views 16,184,580 – PV MoM change 67% – Unique Browsers 4,647,893 – UB MoM change 69%

citizen.co.za

Page Views 17,262,341 – PV MoM change 72% – Unique Browsers 4,608,346 – UB MoM change 73%

ewn.co.za

Page Views 20,890,408 – PV MoM change 51% – Unique Browsers 4,596,043 – UB MoM change 44%

businessinsider.co.za

Page Views 20,820,883 – PV MoM change 105% – Unique Browsers 4,586,022 – UB MoM change 89%

gumtree.co.za

Page Views 76,415,463 – PV MoM change -7% – Unique Browsers 3,842,035 – UB MoM change –9%

 

Growth of News category of sites

South Africa’s internet users have shown that domestic publishers are their go-to source for breaking news during a crisis. People resort to their trusted local news publishers for breaking news and information. These domestic publishers put in massive effort to bring our nation breaking news with journalists risking their lives and working around the clock to ensure the nation has factual, breaking news at their fingertips, around the clock and right throughout the pandemic. Now is the time to recognise the importance of domestic publishers in our society.

 

 

During the month of March, the News category of sites experienced a 44% increase in unique browsers and a 72% increase in Page views.

Summary of key dates:

• • 5 March: first Covid-19 case diagnosed in SA
  • 22 March: Lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa
  • 27 March: Day 1 of lockdown

Top 10 interest audiences

Large increases in News & Politics, Personal Finance and Medical Health can be observed due to a distinct increase in interest in online content related to Coronavirus. Additionally, it is interesting to note the large increase in Music & Audio as people look for entertainment during the lockdown.

Tech & Computing

Page Views 327,085,435 – PV MoM change 23% – Unique browsers 48,692,030 – UB MoM change 30%

News & Politics

Page Views 263,063,803 – PV MoM change 109% – Unique browsers 48,557,868 – UB MoM change 67%

Events & Attractions

Page Views 138,459,150 – PV MoM change 31% – Unique browsers 44,467,229 – UB MoM change 35%

Business & Finance

Page Views 166,292,248 – PV MoM change 36% – Unique browsers 40,508,450 – UB MoM change 36%

Music & Audio

Page Views 116,298,992 – PV MoM change 71% – Unique browsers 37,622,023 – UB MoM change 56%

Shopping

Page Views 179,440,230 – PV MoM change 29% – Unique browsers 37,255,243 – UB MoM change 35%

Personal Finance

Page Views 78,678,433 – PV MoM change 86% – Unique browsers 34,878,123 – UB MoM change 51%

Careers

Page Views 181,702,662 – PV MoM change 0% – Unique browsers 33,003,153 – UB MoM change 15%

Automotive

Page Views 212,990,418 – PV MoM change 34% – Unique browsers 28,723,449 – UB MoM change 26%

Medical Health

Page Views 38,480,797 – PV MoM change 336% – Unique browsers 27,809,074 – UB MoM change 193%

Top 10 Apps

Again, major growth in readership across the top 10 Apps can be attributed to Coronavirus. It is important to note that the decline in News24 Edge App is due to technical reasons with the revamp of the News24 App and traffic now redirecting from the News24 Edge App to the News24 App.

News24 App 

Page Views 237,384,671 – PV MoM change 34% – Unique browsers 1,011,228 – UB MoM change 22%

D6 School Communicator

Page Views 34,503,842 – PV MoM change 12% – Unique browsers 504,490 – UB MoM change 17%

Netwerk24 Mobile App 

Page Views 31,822,449 – PV MoM change 54% – Unique browsers 108,285 – UB MoM change 20%

NetNuus App

Page Views 15,275,836 – PV MoM change 41% – Unique browsers 107,902 – UB MoM change 10%

D6 Connect App

Page Views 3,625,764 – PV MoM change 31% – Unique browsers 65,692 – UB MoM change 19%

eNCA News Mobile App

Page Views 563,848 – PV MoM change 54% – Unique browsers 37,338 – UB MoM change 58%

News24 Edge App

Page Views 3,607,673 – PV MoM change -85% – Unique browsers 28,202 – UB MoM change -93%

BusinessDay App

Page Views 1,092,277 – PV MoM change 27% – Unique browsers 16,234 – UB MoM change 11%

Daily Kick Mobile App

Page Views 4,779 – PV MoM change -17% – Unique browsers 1,141 – UB MoM change -18%

Sliced App

Page Views 1,729 – PV MoM change 18% – Unique browsers 371 – UB MoM change -1%

Top 10 month on month % change and reasons behind big fluctuations

This month, the large fluctuations are as a result of breaking news on Coronavirus. Large sites bring breaking news around Coronavirus like eNCA, SABC News, DispatchLive and Health24 experienced massive growth in readership. Outside of those large news sites, it was smaller community publications that saw large month on month growth due to successful local news articles.

enca.com

Page Views 8,807,227 – PV MoM change 250% – Unique browsers 2,689,664 – UB MoM change 250%

suidkaapforum.com

Page Views 202,930 – PV MoM change 235% – Unique browsers 109,854 – UB MoM change 235%

dispatchlive.co.za

Page Views 4,907,093 – PV MoM change 218% – Unique browsers 2,057,239 – UB MoM change 218%

health24.com

Page Views 7,110,590 – PV MoM change 177% – Unique browsers 2,760,688 – UB MoM change 177%

techcentral.co.za

Page Views 874,712 – PV MoM change 176% – Unique browsers 518,641 – UB MoM change 176%

sabcnews.com

Page Views 2,599,699 – PV MoM change 163% – Unique browsers 1,317,265 – UB MoM change 163%

heartfm.co.za

Page Views 380,665 – PV MoM change 162% – Unique browsers 144.672 – UB MoM change 162%

knysnaplettherald.com

Page Views 276.683 – PV MoM change 141% – Unique browsers 108,947 – UB MoM change 141%

diepos.co.za

Page Views 144,194 – PV MoM change 121% – Unique browsers 97,443 – UB MoM change 121%

joburgeastexpress.co.za

Page Views 58,476 – PV MoM change 122% – Unique browsers 46,411 – UB MoM change 120%

Top insights for the month

TOP 2 CATEGORIES 

News                                       PV: 734,270,084 UB: 50,960,976 Share: 31.95%

Business                                PV: 85,769,172    UB:16,718,041    Share: 10.48%

Top 2 interests 

Tech & Computing           PV: 327,085,435  UB: 48,692,030 Share: 7.65%

News and politics             PV: 263,063,803 UB: 48,557,868  Share: 7.63%

AGE

25.30% of the total market is aged 20 – 24

56.19% of all browsers are 20 – 35

DURATION 

Average visit duration: 3 min 06 sec (-1,61%)

Frequency

14.30 page views per unique browser (-4.03)

DEVICE

83.98% of traffic is from mobile phones (-0.53)