The state of the SA blogosphere
I just read a post Arthur Goldstuck published to Tech Leader (Mail & Guardian’s latest group blog and companion to the very successful Thought Leader blog) about how the SA blogosphere is beginning to mature.
The numbers are pretty revealing. In December 2006 there were roughly 4 941 South African blogs. A year later there were 26 179 although of those, only 3 789 blogs were active. These numbers are pretty insignificant in the context of the global blogosphere (Technorati is presently tracking around 112.8 million blogs) but the growth rate is still pretty impressive. The explanation of what active blogs are compared to the total number of blogs is worth repeating:
The total number of blogs represents the extent to which blogging captured the imagination of aspirant bloggers. Active blogs, on the other hand, are a barometer of the commitment of bloggers. This indicates that, despite many blogs being deleted and many bloggers going back to their day jobs, commitment to blogging is still growing at a rapid pace.
Of course the number of active blogs is not terribly impressive if no-one is reading them. This is not the case in South Africa. According to Goldstuck, the average monthly page views for 2007 was around 5 226 million page views a month. In January 2008 alone, there were roughly double this number of page views – 10 448 million page views. That is a lot of people reading blogs and proof that blogs are not just a fad. I would like to know how significant these numbers are in the context of Internet usage in South Africa generally. That could be pretty interesting. Arthur?
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blog, south africa, blogosphere, statistics, arthur goldstuck, tech leader
