Football is the most discussed topic on Twitter, a survey carried out during the last quarter of 2013, has indicated.
According to the survey released in 2014, the second of its kind by Portland Communications, Johannesburg-based soccer team Orlando Pirates is the most mentioned activity on Twitter in Africa, with Johannesburg the most active ‘Twitter city’ in Africa, with 344,215 geo-located tweets during the last quarter of 2013.
Nairobi is the most active city in East Africa and the sixth most active on the continent, with 123,078 geo-located tweets, while Accra is the most active city in West Africa and the eighth most active on the continent, with 78,575 geo-located tweets during the same period.
Ekurhuleni in South (264,172), Cairo in Egypt (227,509), Durban in South Africa (163,019) and Alexandria in Egypt (159,534) are the other top four most active cities, ahead of Nairobi and Accra.
According to Portland, English, French and Arabic are the most common languages on Twitter in Africa, accounting for 75.5% of the total tweets analysed. Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese are the next most commonly tweeted languages in Africa and Tuesdays and Fridays are the most active tweeting days on the continent. Twitter activity rises steadily through the afternoon and evening, with peak volumes around 10pm
Meanwhile, December 5 2013, the day of Nelson Mandela’s death, Africa saw the highest volume of geo-located tweets.
