By the end of March 2018, Facebook had grown to an estimated 19-million users in South Africa, up by 2-million compared with 2017.
"Facebook is relentless and it keeps growing," World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck told HuffPost, "and we can expect to see these numbers growing in the next few years."
This growth can be attributed to the increased access to mobile phones in South Africa, particularly smartphones — as Facebook is accessed mainly through mobile phones. "Well over 30-million South Africans use smartphones; that's more than half of the population," noted Goldstuck.
And while internet access and internet literacy remain barriers, there has been a rapid uptake of Facebook by lower income groups, with Facebook lite — a version of the app that is smaller in size and so suitable to low-end Android phones — increasing the presence of South Africans.
"And then it's the network effect, as more and more people use it or get value from it, and then tell others about it and they join," Goldstuck said.
Facebook going back to its roots?
"The primary benefit of Facebook has always been the ability to keep your friends, family and social circles integrated into your own life, and yours in theirs," he added.
And this is what Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wants the social media platform to go back to — a place for friends to stay up to date with one another and communicate. A charm that disappeared from Facebook when it introduced News Feed in 2006, wrote Mashable's Kerry Flynn.
"Now users scroll mindlessly on News Feed, where Facebook's mysterious algorithms randomly select what videos to show, among other #content. Facebook now calls this 'passive' consumption, and they want to move away from it."
That's something 29-year-old Johannesburg quantity surveyor Nyeleti Michavi agrees with. "I deleted the app because, honestly, I was getting bored and there were so many interruptions of ads and pop-ups that I didn't sign up for nor wanted to see. I also wasn't particularly fond of Facebook choosing for me what it thought I should see, and I would end up missing important status updates from friends I would've wanted to see."
"We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That's why we've always put friends and family at the core of the experience," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post earlier this year.
What South Africans use Facebook the most for
Apart from the main reason of connecting with friends and family, Facebook users are engaging more and more with the app's news and entertainment, and so want their feed to inform and entertain them, according to findings contained in the Social Media Landscape report by World Wide Worx and brand intelligence company Ornico.
Goldstuck predicts that the news and entertainment trend will remain, even with Facebook attempting to go back to its roots.
This is also encouraged by the social media platform currently being used by 97 percent of big business in South Africa. Brand loyalists seeing this as another motivation to stay on Facebook – for quick and visual news about what their favourite brands are up to. It's also a quick way to call out brands that have let them down.
Goldstuck also predicts that videos will be another Facebook feature South African users gravitate towards, as videos are growing in popularity.
"More and more people are watching videos on Facebook," said Goldstuck, and YouTube's growth in South Africa has played a role in that, he noted.
"Facebook realised that they were behind in the video world, and so now are focusing on enhancing video and the functionality of video feeds to compete directly with YouTube," said Goldstuck.
Michavi, when asked if she would go back to Facebook, if indeed it did go back to its roots, said: "No, I don't think so. That boat has sailed for me. I find more pleasure now on Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp, and I feel they collectively fill the Facebook void."
"Facebook did touch my life when it first came out, when it was a place that enriched my friendships. It was for people. Maybe it can be again," said Flynn.