FYI WhatsApp is the new Facebook
By Dimakatso Maroleni
If you’ve recently received or send your friend a link to a funny cat video via WhatsApp, then you should understand what I mean. Most people spend more time sharing content via private messaging channels like WhatsApp.
WhatsApp allows you to send instant messages only to contacts you’ve added to your WhatsApp account. You can keep in touch with your friends and have fun. Therefore what’s there not to love about it?
Oh yes, and that it’s considered a far more affordable way to socialise online in comparison to the other social apps out there like Facebook and especially that really expensive Instagram. So yes clearly you’re beginning to understand why it’s a firm favourite for people to interact and socialise on.
And although Facebook owns WhatsApp, people these days through WhatsApp are updating their profile pictures more than they’re their Facebook profiles as well as sharing photos through the WhatsApp status update.
And even though according to the South African Social Media Landscape 2018 study the number of South Africans using Facebook had increased by 14% since 2016, from 14-million to 16-million. This all thanks to Facebook Lite, a low-intensity version of the Facebook app that some mobile operators allow to be used without data charges on their networks.
Even with all that WhatsApp is still hailing as the number one when it comes to the growth in downloads and an increase in users. The study showed that Facebook Lite was the fifth most downloaded app from the Google Play Store for Android phones in South Africa, with instant messaging app WhatsApp at number one.
Further proving how WhatsApp is the much preferred platform, so preferred that it’s even become recognised and known as Dark social. A term coined by Alexis Madrigal, deputy editor of “The Atlantic” referring it to web traffic that can’t be tracked or attributed to a known source.
Dark social is everywhere and that’s why, in 2018, we can’t ignore it.