Thousands of Kenyans have stopped using popular instant messaging app WhatsApp following a crackdown on cloned apps, allowing Facebook to be the most used social media platform in the three months to March.
Latest data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) reveals that WhatsApp usage fell by 0.3 percent to 47 percent in the first quarter of this year after Meta intensified the war on clone apps like GBWhatsApp and YoWhatsApp, among others.
This is what made Facebook, which had been playing a secondary role after WhatsApp since it became mainstream about ten years ago, the most prominent social media platform in the country.
About 49.4 percent of the Kenyan adult population used Facebook in the quarter ending March, up from 47.5 percent in the three months to December — making it the second consecutive quarter in which the Meta platform topped.
The decline in WhatsApp usage comes at a time when the app's parent company is intensifying its war against copies of the popular chat platform, which has long been favored by users due to its advanced privacy and custom features.
More recently, after posting a warning message about “unofficial” third-party apps on its website earlier in the year, WhatsApp banned users who were still using cloned apps, forcing them to move to the official app, but it appears many… Kenyans have given up on that. Totally platform.
“Unofficial apps are fake WhatsApp apps, developed by third parties, that violate our terms of service. We do not support these apps because we cannot verify their security practices,” WhatsApp said on its official website, adding that using these apps will lead to… To ban accounts.
In India, for example, where WhatsApp is legally required to publish a monthly report, it banned 7.9 million users from the app in March alone, with another 6.7 million and 7.6 million banned in January and February 2024, respectively.
This represents more than three times the number of account bans carried out on WhatsApp in India in 2022, highlighting the increased vigilance against cloned apps this year. WhatsApp does not publish similar reports for Kenya or any other jurisdiction worldwide.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) also gained new users in the last quarter, suggesting that those who left WhatsApp are now spending more time on these other platforms.
The video sharing platform “YouTube” was the largest in terms of gains, as the number of Kenyans using it increased from 21% in the last quarter of last year to 29.5%.
The use of TikTok, Instagram and
Studies show that Kenyans spend more time on social media daily than any other country in the world, with an average of 223 minutes spent on the platforms daily, according to the 2024 Global Digital Report by media monitoring firm Meltwater.
The Kenya Time Use Report 2021, published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) last year, revealed that Kenyans spend about 234 minutes a day on unproductive work such as communication, socializing and media use.
