Social Media Upward Trend in Somalia

Social media use has increased in Somalia by about 20% since April last year. The overall internet users have also increased by about 10% in this period. Below are few factors which might have contributed to this upward trend:

• Despite finding itself at the bottom of all other indexes, Somalia ranks number one in Africa and 7th globally when it comes to internet affordability. A 1GB of data costs as low as US $0.5.
• About 50% of Somalia’s population use smartphones. China-made smartphones account for more than 85% of the overall smartphone sales in East Africa due to their affordability and decent capability.
• In March 2019, Hormuud reenabled their 4G mobile internet data for the first time since the mid-2010s, giving their millions of subscribers access to the internet through low-cost data bundles.