MARKET RESEARCH
Good News For Advertisers In
Internet Penetration Numbers
By Joe Otin
C
ommon wisdom states that in the
average WhatsApp group 1 out of
every 5 people is a joker, which is a
relatively high proportion because even a
deck of cards has only 2 jokers in a pack of
54. Our interests are however around the
number of influencers in each WhatsApp
group and their power to promote brands
and ideas in their networks.
The brand advocacy happening in the
messaging apps is currently unstructured
and opportunities lie in creating platform
friendly content that is relevant and
captivating, or by providing incentives to
consume and share content.
Our primary source of internet access
and consumption data is from the
Communications Authority of Kenya
(CA) and as you browse their reports you
are warned that they take no responsibility
for the information contained there-in.
I quote “Although every effort has been
made to ensure accuracy of the data
contained in this report, the Authority
is not liable for inaccuracies in any of
the information contained in this report,
which is contingent upon the operators/
service providers’ compliance returns.”
On reading a little further we find another
disclaimer under some spectacular
internet access numbers and I again
quote “There is no scientific method
of estimating internet users; for the
purpose of this report the methodology is
adopted from the recommendation from
ITU (International Telecommunication
Union).”
Perhaps the word ‘Authority’ in their name
should become the active component and
the thought leadership that they must drive
should be backed up by comprehensive
and accurate data that they are prepared
The current internet penetration numbers
therefore paint a positive picture with regards
to effective reach and the data is very encourag-
ing when predicting the potential for audience
engagement expected to follow with the drop of
both internet access tariffs and the cost of inter-
net enabled devices, as well as the universal roll-
out of high quality data services.
40 MAL23/18 ISSUE
to stand by.
Without a doubt they should be
accountable for the massive budgets that
they control and thus provide information
that is useful to their stakeholders for the
betterment of the advertising industry and
the audiences that they target.
That notwithstanding, CA has the
opportunity to be the first regulatory
agency in sub-Saharan Africa to provide
reliable insights into the usage and
attitudes of the internet with demographic
segmentation, delivering data on content
consumed, mode of access, time spent
online and geographical distinctions.
There isn’t a better time than now to invest
in this research and it certainly will be
worth every shilling spent!
In the absence of dependable data, we
are therefore forced to look elsewhere to
get realistic indicators on internet usage
in the country, and because Kenya has
leaped-frogged the fixed line technology
straight into universal use of mobile
telephony and data services, we turn to
the telecommunication companies figures
for this.
According to the research department
of Safaricom there are 16 million people
using their data services and the CA
Operator Returns indicate that there are
likewise 5 million data users on Airtel’s
network. That gives us a total of 21 million
people with access to the internet, and