According to Opera's latest report, Africa's mobile phone industry is growing at nearly double the global rate whilst at the same time, PC penetration rates remain low as the initial costs are high. 

According to the report South Africa and Egypt lead the way for mobile web adoption, followed by Kenya and Nigeria.

Traffic generated through Opera's servers equates to almost 50gb in the last month and interestingly Swaziland leads the top 10 countries in page views. 

User growth since January 2008: 92.6%

Page View growth since January 2008: 105.8% 

Top 5 sites ranked by unique users

1. Google.com

2. Facebook.com

3. gamejump.com

4. my.opera.com

5. youtube.com

 

What does this translate to for commerce? 

If you DO NOT have a mobile 'online' strategy - the time is NOW.

 

Mobile strategy considerations: 

Who is my Audience?

What is my Message?

What is the Incentive to get them to my site?

Is there a need for an incentive?

 

If you can effectively answer these you have the basis for establishing your Mobi-site, and your communication to get customers on to your site. 

You also need to identify the correct partner for delivery and management as the technology underpinning your Mobi-site and communication with your customers has to ensure that all mobile operating systems, browser platforms and screen resolutions are catered for.

There is nothing like a poor user experience to drive people away from your Mobi-site - that is why it is key that the technology you use facilitates a great user experience. The site should be optimised for the handset logging in to it and it should fit into the screen. 

Get your mobile strategy working for you now!