IAB SA NARRATIIVE REPORT
A monthly snapshot of the South African online landscape, conducted by Narratiive, the official online audience measurement currency contracted to the IAB South Africa. Narratiive measures web analytics and demographic data across approximately 200 websites in South Africa, the report looks at the top ten websites, content interests, apps and the sites with the largest month on month traffic fluctuations as well as key overall web analytics for all online traffic measured in South Africa.
SOUTH AFRICA ONLINE
April 2021 Top Ten Websites
| Website | Page views | PV MoM change | Unique browsers | UB MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| news24.com | 95,903,430 | -9% | 12,353,840 | -6% |
| timeslive.co.za | 30,075,402 | -9% | 6,498,521 | -6% |
| iol.co.za | 30,599,695 | 6% | 6,269,249 | -2% |
| BusinessTech.co.za | 17,448,231 | 0% | 5,010,656 | -7% |
| gumtree.co.za | 68,905,953 | -8% | 3,633,179 | -11% |
| thesouthafrican.com | 11,369,840 | -13% | 3,522,264 | -15% |
| ewn.co.za | 17,402,626 | -15% | 3,491,997 | -19% |
| sowetanlive.co.za | 11,254,395 | -17% | 2,801,716 | -17% |
| vodacom.co.za | 17,194,048 | -1% | 2,747,350 | -4% |
| dailymaverick.co.za | 10,023,613 | -10% | 2,293,549 |
Notable insights
- April 2021 saw a significant decline in traffic across the board. Easter Holidays in the
beginning of the month and school holidays at the end of the month resulted in a month on month decline of 16% in Unique Browsers while Page Views stayed stable. Year on Year we saw a 9% decline in Page Views and 12% decline in Unique Browsers. - Overall a significant decline was observed across news, lifestyle and finance content while sport, business and travel content saw increased readership.
- Another notable insight is that traffic from Mobile devices declined by 4% month on month to 82.95%.
Read the full report on the IAB SA website.
SOUTH AFRICA ONLINE
March 2021 Top Ten Websites
| Website | Page views | PV MoM change | Unique browsers | UB MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| news24.com | 105,691,044 | 5% | 13,152,346 | 9% |
| timeslive.co.za | 33,192,394 | 5% | 6,889,475 | 0% |
| iol.co.za | 28,866,551 | 1% | 6,383,995 | 6% |
| BusinessTech.co.za | 17,397,961 | -8% | 5,362,480 | -9% |
| ewn.co.za | 20,576,950 | 4% | 4,305,367 | 5% |
| thesouthafrican.com | 13,072,879 | 12% | 4,136,234 | 6% |
| gumtree.co.za | 75,094,635 | 3% | 4,092,259 | -2% |
| sowetanlive.co.za | 13,591,163 | -12% | 3,391,122 | 1% |
| vodacom.co.za | 17,436,753 | 15% | 2,846,901 | 10% |
| enca.com | 7,555,38 | 12% | 2,722,270 | 13% |
Notable insights
- March 2021 saw a slight month on month increase in total traffic of 6% increase in unique browsers and 4% increase in page views. This is expected on the back of a short month in February.
- However, year on year comparison showed a dip in traffic of 13% in page views and 4% in unique browsers. This is as March 2020 recorded record traffic due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased interest in breaking news.
Read the full report on the IAB SA website.
SOUTH AFRICA ONLINE
February 2021 Top Ten Websites
| Website | Page views | PV MoM change | Unique browsers | UB MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| news24.com | 100,381,801 | -19% | 12,023,769 | -17% |
| timeslive.co.za | 31,642,692 | -16% | 6,918,753 | -17% |
| iol.co.za | 28,692,708 | -24% | 6,010,689 | -21% |
| BusinessTech.co.za | 18,937,290 | -30% | 5,878,213 | -20% |
| gumtree.co.za | 72,891,242 | -15% | 4,167,021 | -9% |
| ewn.co.za |
19,768,726 | -36% | 4,124,212 | -23% |
| thesouthafrican.com | 11,692,864 | -22% | 3,905,529 | -17% |
| sowetanlive.co.za | 15,506,340 | 10% | 3,364,569 | -4% |
| dailymaverick.co.za | 11,348,969 | -11% | 2,824,550 | -20% |
| vodacom.co.za | 15,133,350 | -12% | 2,588,610 | -12% |
Notable insights
- January 2021 saw strong growth in overall traffic. This is in line with a seasonal increase in traffic, as people return to work after the December holidays. However, this increase was off a high base from record December traffic. Month on month, January saw a 16% growth in PVs while year on year there was a 4% increase in PVs.
- This seasonal increase together with increased interest in breaking news around the second wave of Covid-19, meant all of the above top 10 sites saw a strong month on month growth.
- Traffic generated from mobile devices continues to steadily increase. As a comparison, 68% of total traffic was generated from Mobile devices in 2019 versus 85% in January 2021.
Read the full report on the IAB SA website.
SOUTH AFRICA ONLINE
January 2021 Top Ten Websites
| Website | Page views | PV MoM change | Unique browsers | UB MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| news24.com | 124,036,639 | 21% | 14,431,339 | 14% |
| timeslive.co.za | 37,573,952 | 17% | 8,327,730 | 18% |
| iol.co.za | 37,655,944 | 33% | 7,595,666 | 29% |
| BusinessTech.co.za | 26,942,431 | 50% | 7,302,552 | 28% |
| ewn.co.za | 30,826,112 | 38% | 5,331,376 | 16% |
| thesouthafrican.com | 15,006,176 | 31% | 4,695,563 | 18% |
| gumtree.co.za | 85,901,380 | 32% | 4,595,101 | 19% |
| enca.com | 15,012,123 | 35% | 4,248,358 | 20% |
| dailymaverick.co.za | 12,744,343 | 30% | 3,525,527 | 39% |
| sowetanlive.co.za | 14,111,888 | 11% | 3,500,926 | 11% |
Notable insights
- January 2021 saw strong growth in overall traffic. This is in line with a seasonal increase in traffic, as people return to work after the December holidays. However, this increase was off a high base from record December traffic. Month on month, January saw a 16% growth in PVs while year on year there was a 4% increase in PVs.
- This seasonal increase together with increased interest in breaking news around the second wave of Covid-19, meant all of the above top 10 sites saw a strong month on month growth.
- Traffic generated from mobile devices continues to steadily increase. As a comparison, 68% of total traffic was generated from Mobile devices in 2019 versus 85% in January 2021.
Read the full report on the IAB SA website.
SOUTH AFRICA ONLINE
December 2020 Top Ten Websites
| Website | Page views | PV MoM change | Unique browsers | UB MoM change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| news24.com | 124,036,639 | 21% | 14,431,339 | 14% |
| timeslive.co.za | 37,573,952 | 17% | 8,327,730 | 18% |
| iol.co.za | 37,655,944 | 33% | 7,595,666 | 29% |
| BusinessTech.co.za | 26,942,431 | 50% | 7,302,552 | 28% |
| ewn.co.za | 30,826,112 | 38% | 5,331,376 | 16% |
| thesouthafrican.com | 15,006,176 | 31% | 4,695,5630 | 18% |
| gumtree.co.za | 85,901,380 | 32% | 4,595,101 | 19% |
| enca.com | 15,012,123 | 35% | 4,248,358 | 20% |
| dailymaverick.co.za | 12,744,343 | 30% | 3,525,527 | 39% |
| sowetanlive.co.za | 14,111,888 | 11% | 3,500,926 | 11% |
Notable insights
- Overall traffic increased slightly in December with just over 1 billion page impressions and 87 million unique browsers measured across all Narratiive tagged sites in South Africa. This is however against the usual annual trend of approximately 15% month on month decline in web traffic for December. In contrast, this year traffic was up 3% month on month and 6% year on year.
- Content that performed well in December was largely focused COVID breaking news as the second wave hit South Africa in December. As a result, large domestic news sites again acted as the go-to resources for breaking news on the latest COVID news and potential restrictions imposed over the festive season.
Read the full report on the IAB SA website.