21% increase in African mobile web traffic - AdMob

According to AdMob, mobile internet usage is growing across Africa, with particularly strong growth in Nigeria and Egypt. AdMob has seen traffic increase 21% since the company began tracking the Africa market in Q1 2008. The report also noted that the Nokia dominates device marketshare throughout Africa, with 50,6% of the market. Nokia is the most popular device manufacturer in the top five countries of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania.

Worldwide Nokia and Openwave are the top browsers with 34% and 29% share, respectively. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm, and Safari (Apple) all had less than 5% marketshare around the world.

Other key data from the report:

Worldwide traffic grew 18% and US requests grew 5,8% month over month, while UK traffic was basically flat with a -0,5% change from June.

Traffic from Smartphones continued to increase, while 25,6% of worldwide ad requests were from Smartphones in July, up from 24,3% in June.

The Nokia N95 has overtaken the SonyEricsson k800i to be the top device in the UK with an 8,3% market share in July.

The Philippines has been added to the report this month due to continuing strong mobile Web growth in the country. The report shows that 34% of traffic comes from Smartphones, and over 20% of traffic comes from devices with XL screen size, both metrics significantly higher than other countries. The Sony PlayStation Portable and iTouch are both in the Top 20 devices.

The AdMob monthly metrics report is designed to provide insights into trends in the mobile ecosystem. The July report and all previous reports are available for free download at www.admob.com/metrics.