A new global study by Mailsuite analysed Google Play Store reviews of nearly 1 500 communication and social media apps to rank the most hated social media platforms in every country as of June 2024.
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According to Business Tech, like many around the globe, South African social media users have a strong disdain for Reddit.
In South Africa, Facebook emerged as the most-loved social media platform.
This contrasts sharply with global trends, where Facebook was deemed the most hated platform in 39 countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada and India.
However, South Africans did share their disdain for Reddit with users in 30 other countries included in the study.
‘The content-sharing site (Reddit) was a straggler to the app realm, undergoing a major renovation to become usable on mobile browsers in 2010 and finally buying up third-party Reddit reader Alien Blue in 2014 and rebranding it as the official Reddit mobile app,’ said Mailsuite.
‘Reddit updated the app’s conversation navigation and loading times in April 2024, following widespread criticism that the app was slow and unintuitive to use.’
Globally, TikTok was the most loved social media app, favoured by 30 countries, including the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Since its September 2017 launch, TikTok has become highly influential, amassing over 1 billion downloads and 80 million reviews across Play Store and App Store.
Mailsuite’s findings align with the latest Social Media Landscape Report by World Wide Worx and Ornico, which surveyed 24 000 urban respondents aged 15 and older.
According to the report, Facebook remains the most popular site in South Africa, with usage growing from 56.7% in 2022 to 59.6% in 2023.
TikTok ranked second, with its usage increasing from 30.6% in 2022 to 34.0% in 2024.
‘This growth reflects TikTok’s increasing popularity, likely due to its engaging short-form video content that continues to attract a wide audience,’ said the report.
Instagram remained popular but experienced a slight decline in usage, decreasing from 27.6% in 2022 to 26.9% in 2023.
Elon Musk’s Twitter/X saw a drop in usage, falling from 22.5% in 2022 to 18.8% in 2023.
Fifth-placed LinkedIn also saw a decline in usage, dropping from 14.7% in 2022 to 12.2% in 2023, which may suggest a shift in the use of professional networking sites.
Rounding out the top ten were Telegram, Pinterest and 2GO, each with 10% usage, followed by Tinder at 6% and Grindr at 5%.
Reddit lagged behind with just 4% usage, highlighting its limited popularity among South African social media users.
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