Majority of Kenyan youth have shunned traditional media such as newspapers, television and radio stations and instead prefer to read and watch news online and access information especially on social media platforms, entertainment news apps and blogs fresh research shows.
Millennial, whose population demography continues to grow, are fans of the Internet with 60 per cent sourcing information from the platform and making it their primary source of news.
TV follows at a distant 27.6 per cent, radio seven per cent and newspapers trail at 5.1 per cent, a GeoPoll survey shows. Not only do African millenials spend more time on social media sites, they also spend as much time gaming.
GeoPoll shows that the most downloaded apps by category are social networking, gaming, instant messaging, banking and finance, education, health and fitness.
“Millennials are vanguards of a future Africa and technology is becoming an integral part of it all,””says GeoPoll CEO Nick Becker. “As younger millennial continue to make their impact felt in almost every sector, a mobile-first approach is crucial for any company that seeks to reach this culture rich group of image conscious, educated and opinionated individuals.”
The poll was conducted among 2,861 respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria.
However, Kenya’s millennial’ habits are not unique. The trend continues in the rest of Africa with neighbouring Uganda’s youth who use social media to access information hitting 61.4 per cent, and Tanzania 49.3 per cent.
While in West Africa, Nigeria’s youth rise to a whopping 70.9 per cent and Ghana 64 per cent.
Like their global counterparts, African millennial are increasingly using download sites to access video entertainment and social media sites as tools for communication and a source of news and information.
Mobile data continues to be the most used means through which African millennial access the Internet.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have become an integral part of everyday life with over 60 per cent using the networks as their primary source of information, the study shows.
Television comes a distant second at 25 per cent with newspapers being the least important source at six per cent.
The second “screen phenomenon”, meaning electronic device used by television viewers to connect to a programme — though not highly prevalent among African millennial — is the smartphone.
At the continental level, 57 per cent of millennial say they sometimes use their smartphones to watch TV while 35 per cent say they are “always on their phones.”
“This can be attributed to data costs which are still relatively high in many African countries compared to the rest of the world as well as changing preference on choice of entertainment among this group,” Mr Becker says.
African millennial are also addicted to entertainment.
Access to video entertainment in the demography is undergoing a significant shift. There is decreased demand for bootleg DVDs generally across the countries that took part in the survey, except in Ghana.
According to the survey, more millennial in Africa are accessing their movies and TV series entertainment through online downloads.
They spend the least time in cinema halls compared to other ways of accessing video entertainment selected for the survey.
Subscriptions to online video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Showmax is still relatively low with a majority indicating that they do not use these services.
Out of those who indicated that they use online video streaming services Netflix was the most popular. Kenyan, Ugandan and Ghanaian millennial have more game apps downloaded on their smartphones than any other application.
The use of power banks, though evident, is not yet prevalent.
“Millennial across the world are defined by their uptake of technology. Affinity to technology by millennial world-wide, and specifically so in the West, is a study that is currently ongoing and continues to be a fascinating undertaking especially in regard to the African millennial.
“In our continuing series on sub Saharan African millennial, we sought to understand this affinity towards technology and more specifically mobile technology,” says GeoPoll chief Becker.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
