Nigeria Leads China, US, Others in Mobile Web Traffic in 2021

Nigeria, a developing country, is currently ahead of developed nations like the United Kingdom and the United States, and the world’s most populous nation, China, in global mobile web traffic.

The country recently recorded the highest mobile web traffic in the world for 2021.

A recent report revealed that smartphone users accessing the web in Nigeria account for 82.63% while India follows behind with 73.8%. Turkey emerged third, with 68.52 percent while Singapore, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emerged fourth, fifth, but surprisingly, developed nations were stuck in the 40%-50% bracket.

A breakdown of this analysis further revealed that Nigeria usage of the web through mobile phones surpassed that of UK (47.20%), Germany (43.81%), United States (48.77%), Spain (51.46%), Italy (49.54%), and France (48.91%).

Reacting to this, StockApps editor, Vyom Chaudhary noted that cheap data was fueling the rise of mobile web traffic among Nigeria and other developing countries.

“The disparity between different nations is down to multiple reasons. One of the major factors is the availability of cheap mobile internet in various developing economies.

“Furthermore, the relatively easier access to mobile phones over computers allows the former to become the preferred mode for internet users in developing economies”, he noted.

Investors King recalls that experts had earlier projected that 2022 will be a unique transition year for the telecom industry. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had stated that the ongoing implementation of the new Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025 and its Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), 2021-2025 is instrumental in driving development of new technologies and local content in Nigeria.

According to Statista, in 2021, it was estimated that mobile broadband subscriptions reached 83.2 active subscriptions per 100 inhabitants of the global population. The highest rate of mobile broadband was in Europe where there were 105.3 mobile broadband subscriptions for every 100 inhabitants.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea boast some of the fastest average mobile internet connections in the world, with each of these countries registering average speeds in excess of 200 Mbps as of October 2021. UAE was the fastest, with an average connection speed of 273.87 Mbps, considerably higher than the runner-up South Korea, which registered average mobile connection speeds of 214.47 Mbps.