Durban among Africa’s leading tweet cities

Durban is one of the  five most active cities on Twitter , according to How Africa Tweets, a new study analysing Twitter activity on the continent.

Strategic communications agency Portland analysed geo-located tweets originating from Africa during the final three months of 2013.

The study  looks at Twitter use on the continent, looking at which cities are the most active, what languages are being used the most and what issues are driving the conversation online.

How Africa Tweets found that, during the final three months of 2013:

•  Johannesburg is the most active city in Africa, with 344,215 geo-located tweets, followed by Ekurhuleni (264,172) and Cairo (227,509). Durban (163,019) and Alexandria (159,534) make up the remainder of the top five most active cities
• English, French and Arabic are the most common languages on Twitter in Africa, accounting for 75.5% of the total tweets analysed. Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese are the next most commonly tweeted languages in Africa.
• Tuesdays and Fridays are the most active tweeting days. Twitter activity rises steadily through the afternoon and evening, with peak volumes around 9pm
• The day of Nelson Mandela’s death – 5 December – saw the highest volume of geo-located tweets in Africa
• Brands in Africa are becoming increasingly prevalent on Twitter.
• Football is the most-discussed topic on Twitter in Africa. Football was discussed more than any other topic, including the death of Nelson Mandela. The most mentioned football team was Johannesburg’s Orlando Pirates (#BlackisBack, #PrayForOrlandoPirates, #OperationFillOrlandoStadium)