Egypt, S'Africa lead Africa's population on Facebook

A CAREFUL inspection of Facebook usage across Africa has revealed a few interesting aspects of online user behaviour.Based on research into user figures, IT News Africa listed the continents 10 major Facebook contributors, with Egypt, South Africa leading the chart ahead of Nigeria, others.According to the research, Egypt has 10.7 million users, while South Africa is second with 4.6 million Facebook users. Morocco is third with 4.3 million users.Nigeria is fourth on the list, with 4.13 million of its population now on Facebook and closely followed by Algeria with 3.4 million users. Tunisia, Kenya, Ghana have 2.9, 1.32 and 1.19 million users respectively, while DRC and Senegal have 845,200 and 667,820 users.Meanwhile, shares of social network giant were officially floated on the NASDAQ last week with an estimated value of $100 billion. The company's IPO was priced at $38 per share, turning it into the largest tech IPO in history. The social networking website has a 900-million strong user base ' a significant portion resides in Africa.Bloomberg.com reported that the IPO made Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wealthier than Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. According to the report, Facebook sold 421.2 million shares for $38 each, which values the 503.6 million shares and options Zuckerberg owns at $19.1 billion.Research shows that the African continent has played a key role in providing access to Facebook and driving traffic to the site.According to www.internetworldstats.com the number of Facebook users in Africa in March 2011 was 27,414,240 and a year later, the figure stood at 40,205,580. This represents penetration rates of 2.6 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively.
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