Social media is a big deal in Uganda and apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram are widely used to communicate and share ideas a lot today. A section of users have accounts with almost every platform, whereas some opt to settle for a single app based on how much ease they find in using it.
According to the Social Media statistics for the month of April, revealed by Global Stats, Facebook is the most used platform accounting for 59.58% usage, with Pinterest following in at 24.37%. Twitter users account for 10.33%, YouTube viewers for 3.93%, Instagram for 1.05%, and LinkedIn with 0.15%.
Majority of the Facebook users access the platform via their mobile phones, making up 64.76% of mobile social media users while having 42% of desktop social media usage. On the other hand, there are more Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube users via desktops than those that use their mobiles to access the services.
The entire trend for the past 12 months has been fluctuating, an indication of user response to the OTT tax introduced mid last year to charge whoever wants to access social media services a daily fee of UGX 200. The impact of the tax has been felt by almost every subscriber to the extend that even the MPs that amended the excise duty act now want to be exempted from the tax.
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Various telecoms have innovated better service provision for their clients by offering social media bundles that have the tax paid in full, and the most recent product is Africell’s relaunched SWIFT bundles.
The quarterly report from Uganda Communications commission for July to September 2018 indicated a collection of 5.6 billion in July 2018, a figure that dropped to just over UGX 4 billion in August, and consequently to UGX 3.9 billion in September.
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The mobile internet subscription was noted to be at 13.5 million as of September 2018, a number that had grown from 9.8 million people recorded back in June 2018. It is not a doubt that a big portion of these increased numbers use social media.
