Social networking and instant messaging are the most popular apps used by mobile subscribers in Nigeria. This is according to a non-scientific survey we conducted on our Facebook fan page recently. Social networking and instant messaging apps with a popularity score of 45.3% beat mobile browsers (31.1%) to second place. However, the Opera mini/mobile browsers were the single most popular app for mobile subscribers in Nigeria.
The survey requested our fans on Facebook and Twitter to list their 3 most frequently used mobile apps. It focused on mobile subscribers running BlackBerry, Android, Symbian, and Nokia Series 40. In all platforms, social networking apps led except for Nokia Series 40 were mobile browsers had a slight edge.
The survey showed that BlackBerry users were extremely pro social/IM with social networking apps having a popularity score of 79.7% amongst BlackBerry subscribers. Browsers only managed 10.8% popularity. On Nokia platforms (Symbian & Series 40), popularity was evenly distributed between social networking/Instant Messaging apps and mobile browsers.
Nigerian mobile subscribers chat a lot and are active social networking that would be the conclusion if we are to believe the result of the survey. Social networking and instant messaging apps have a popularity score of 45.3%. However, you are wrong if you think Facebook is the most popular social networking/instant messaging app used by Nigerians. Actually 2go app was more popular than Facebook app.
Note that this does not actually mean that 2go is more popular than Facebook. It could suggest that some mobile users in Nigeria prefer to access Facebook via other channels like their browser instead using the Facebook app.
Video streaming apps were very unpopular with very few respondents listing them as their top apps.
Top mobile apps in Nigeria
Here are the most popular apps used by Nigeria mobile subscriber, according to our December, 2011 survey. The popularity score of each app is in bracket.
- Opera Mini/Mobile (20.9%)
- 2go (14.4%)
- Facebook (11.1%)
- UC Browser (8.1%)
- Whatsapp (4.8%)
- BlackBerry Messenger (4.8%)
- Nimbuzz (3.75%)
Top mobile apps by platform
Now let’s look at the data platform by platform.
Top 5 Symbian apps
For Symbian users Social networking/Instant messaging apps with a score of 38.1% had a slight edge over browsers, which had a score of 33%.
Here are the top 5 apps for Symbian users:
- Opera Mini/Mobile (24.9%)
- 2go (12.7%)
- Whatsapp (9.0%)
- UC Browser (8.5%)
- Nimbuzz (6.9%)
Xplore, a file manager app and Ebuddy also had some frequent users.
Top 5 mobile apps for BlackBerry
Social networking and instant messaging apps were clearly the most popular apps for BlackBerry subscribers. It had a popularity score of 79.7%, leaving browsers with just 10.8% in second place. However, coming as a surprise is that the Facebook app is more popular than BlackBerry messenger.
Here are the top 5 apps for BlackBerry users:
- Facebook (32.4%)
- BlackBerry Messenger (29.7%)
- Twitter (14.9%)
- BlackBerry Browser (5.4%)
- Opera Browsers (4%)
Top 5 mobile apps for Nokia Series 40
Nokia Series 40 was the only platform where browsers edged social/IM apps, although slightly. Browsers had a popularity score of 44.4%, while Social/IM apps had 42.6%.
Here are the top 5 apps for Nokia Series 40:
- Opera Mini (29%)
- 2go (29.7%)
- UC browser (13.6)
- Whatsapp (7.1%)
- Facebook (4.7%)
Blue FTP was also popular.
Top 3 mobile apps for Android phones
Due to the low number of Android users that responded to the survey, the data for Android is less accurate. Also, the diversity of apps used by the few respondents made it almost impossible to get a clear pattern. So, we can only provide top 3 apps for Android.
Here are the top 3 apps for Android users:
- Facebook (21.2%)
- Google Map (6.3%)
- GMail app (4.2%)
