The latest figures published by Africascope for 2021 reveal, for the first time, the dominance of WhatsApp in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.
WHATSAPP 68%
FACEBOOK 64%
INSTAGRAM 28%
TWITTER 9%
VIBER 4%
In almost all the countries studied, WhatsApp is now the most widely used social network on a daily basis. While Facebook is holding its own, reaching almost equivalent levels, in Senegal and Mali the gap between the two platforms is very significant: 20 and 14 points between the two networks.
The rise of WhatsApp has been rather rapid.
In Senegal, for example, where internet penetration is highest, it has risen from 25% in 2016 to 77% in 2021. At the same time, Facebook, which dominated social media, has gone from 31% to 58%, with a real stagnation over the last two years.