Africa tweets young at 20-29; led by S Africa, Kenya, Nigeria

Young people tweeting from Blackberries and iPhones are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, with South Africans by far the most vociferous, according to new research published Thursday.

Young people tweeting from Blackberries and iPhones are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, with South Africans by far the most vociferous, according to new research published Thursday.

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Kenya-based Portland Commu­­­nications and Tweet­minster published findings indicating Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation. More than 80% of those polled said they mainly used it for communicating with friends, 68% said they use it to monitor news and 22% to search for jobs, the companies said.

The research studied more than 11.5 million geographically pinpointed tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. That was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa’s most active tweeters.

South Africans, with the continent’s biggest economy, were the most prolific with over twice as many tweets at 5,030,226 than the next most active country of Kenya with 2,476,800 tweets. African tweeters are young, averaging 20 to 29 years, compared to 39 worldwide, the report said.