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AB de Villiers has more Instagram followers than the country has users
Estimates place South Africa's Instagram user base between 7.2 and 9 million users.
Faf Du Plessis, Bonang Matheba, AB de Villiers and Boity Thulo are among the top 20 most followed public figures on Instagram in South Africa | Images: Instagram
Faf Du Plessis, Bonang Matheba, AB de Villiers and Boity Thulo are among the top 20 most followed public figures in South Africa. In fact, de Villiers tops the list at 10.2 million followers, which is more than the amount of South Africans who are even on the platform.
This is according to brand intelligence firm Ornico, which released its report on the South African social media landscape this week.
Ornico reports that the South African Instagram user base is estimated at around 9 million people, however, founder and MD of World Wide Worx Arthur Goldstuck places the user base closer to 7.2 million.
This is not to be confused with regular and active users on the platform, which is estimated at around 4.7 million.
Goldstuck attributes De Villiers’ large following to his success as a batsman in the Indian Premier League (IPL) which would explain the huge gap on the list between the cricketer and personalities such as Boity Thulo, Minnie Dlamini and Bonang Matheba who are second, third and fourth on the list with 3.9 million, 3.7 million and 3.7 million followers respectively (which shows a slight growth in numbers from the tally captured by Ornico).
Other South Africans on the list include rapper AKA, musician Black Coffee, actress Jessica Nkosi and cricketer Dale Steyn.
The full report is based on the Ornico website:
