South Africans Want Jobs and Dates Provided by the Internet

South Africans' preferences when it comes to online surfing are primarily focused on employment websites. Only in June, 450,000 people used the employment offers displayed on specialized sites. The numbers are even more significant considering the fact that the average session duration was of almost 13 minutes, which outdistances these online applications from the ones of different orientations.

The dating and real estate websites also led to extended visiting minutes, going above the 9-minute mark for each category. "South African consumers are clearly very engaged when visiting job, dating or real estate sites. It's likely their intention is to achieve a particular objective in that visit as opposed to just being a casual look," comments Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst at Nielsen Online, the company that undertook the respective survey.

The e-mail, messaging and chat applications, which attract the biggest number of visitors - almost 1.4 million per month -, don't have such a long time range of use for each session. A South African only spends an average of 6.13 minutes to read mails or talk to friends via Internet. The automotive industry websites are also relatively popular in the country, as over 450,000 users spent an average of 8 minutes on these properties.

The most popular website in South Africa, when it comes to the time spent on it, is Ananzi Dating, for which users usually allocate more than 16 minutes each time they enter it. Although the number of users is not significant, if compared with the whole market of Internet users, the fact that the clients are very committed could mark the beginning of a new direction in advertising.

"These types of sites might not offer advertisers the biggest potential audience but they do provide the opportunity to provide more ongoing, engaging or niche targeting campaigns. Using their own language, therefore, dating sites might describe themselves as small but perfectly formed," Burmaster explained.