Cameroon Digital Economy
Today’s world is a digital world, with nearly half the world online. Cameroon is actively taking part in this digital revolution with majority of businesses adapting social media and other online platforms to create awareness, educate, increase traffic, create leads and increase sales. The number of internet users in Cameroon rose to 9.15 million in January 2021. This number is up by 2.7 million compared with the 7.8 million users recorded in January 2020. It represents a 34% penetration, against 30% in January 2020 and just 2% a decade ago.
We are going to have a global view of changes in digital consumer behavior with key data on the state of the internet, mobile, social, and ecommerce in Cameroon.
First let’s take a quick look at some global digital trends.
According to a report by Hootsuite and We Are Social in January 2021, In the last year, digital adoption accelerated around the world as people spent more time online. There are now 4.66 billion people who use the internet—close to 60 % of the world’s total population.
Social media users jumped by more than 13 % over the past year, bringing the global total to nearly 4.2 billion. That’s over 1 billion new users over the last three years. As the CMO Survey shows, social media spending has increased from 13.3 % of marketing budgets in February 2020 to 23.2 % in June 2020 —a 74 % lift. CMOs anticipate that social media investments will remain high at 23.4 % of marketing budgets into 2021.
This past year has been a tipping point for baby boomers (people aged between 54 – 64) online. They are one of the fastest growing audience segments on both Facebook and Instagram.
More than 98% of the users of any given social media platform also use at least one other social platform. For brands, this means that a multichannel strategy does not need to include every single platform. In fact, having a presence on 1-2 of the larger platforms offers the most potential to reach almost all of the world’s social media users.
45 % of global internet users now say they turn to social when researching products or services. This figure is even higher among Gen Z users ( born between 1997 and 2012), who say that they’re more likely to search for brands on social over search engines.
The amount of money people spent on online purchases of food and personal care items jumped by more than 40 % over the past year, as COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures drove people to move their grocery shopping online.
Essential insights into digital use in Cameroon in 2021
According to the same report in January 2021, of 26.88 million Cameroonians
There are 9.15 M active internet users which accounts for 34% of the population
There were 4.30 M active social media users.
The number of social media users in Cameroon increased by 600 thousand (+16%) between 2020 and 2021.
There were 4 482 000 Facebook users in Cameroon in May 2021, which accounted for 16.5% of its entire population.
The majority of them were men – 57.6%.
People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (1 660 000).
The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 200 000.
Facebook reports that 4.50 M Cameroonians can be reached with adverts on Facebook
The number of social media users in Cameroon was equivalent to 16.0% of the total population in January 2021.
There were 26.60 million mobile connections in Cameroon in January 2021.
The number of mobile connections in Cameroon increased by 2.6 million (+11%) between January 2020 and January 2021.
The number of mobile connections in Cameroon in January 2021 was equivalent to 99.0% of the total population.
The internet provides an opportunity to do business at a low cost. Selling, promotion and advertising, networking and Consulting.
In the last 10 years, we have seen the tremendous growth of digital platforms and their influence on our lives. Now consumers are influenced by things they see on social media (Facebook, Tiktok, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) and YouTube.
Almost all of the biggest companies in the world (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon) are from the digital world.
As Bill Gates said–” If your company isn’t on the internet, your business will be out of business,” There’s much scope for growth by doing business online. The market is huge and not up to 1/4 of its capabilities have been exploited. Find out what opportunities exist and how joining the Digital Revolution could help you reach your goals and make money.
