Tanzania ranks high in online food ordering

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania leads in Africa by using mobile phones to order food more than computers, an infographic presentation has shown.

The development implies how mobile phones with an advanced mobile operating system are actively in use by Tanzanians to order, settle bills or make online transactions.

Such a trend comes after the International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that smartphone shipments in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are set to reach 155 million units this year after increasing 66 per cent year-on-year during the first quarter to reach more than 36 million units.

A leading Africa’s online food delivery marketplace, Hellofood, released the infographic that details online food delivery in 11 countries. Two methods of food ordering were studied – mobile phone and computer. It was found that 79 per cent of Tanzanians preferred using mobile phones to order food, while only 21 per cent used desktop computers to order food online. It should be noted that it is only smartphones that have features to allow an order online.

The preference of mobile phone to order food was also found in some other countries like Egypt (56 per cent) and Ivory Coast (54 per cent).

Ghanaians were found to have least interest in using mobile phones to order food with 31 per cent followed by Nigerians (39 per cent), Senegalese and Rwandese by 45 per cent each. In some countries like Uganda, the preference was equal –where 50 per cent of Ugandans used mobile phones and 50 per cent used computers to order food. Nigerians were leading by ordering food using computers (61 per cent) followed by Rwandese and Senegalese by 55 per cent each. Algeria had 52 per cent.

According to Hellofood, there has been the growth rate of mobile orders, which reach 50 per cent in African by last year, with the future remaining bright. “This is facilitated by affordable prices of smartphones (Sh80,000), which have an impact on millions of people’s every day lives,” notes the Hellofood Africa chief executive officer, Joe Falter.

Ericsson Mobility Report of 2015 shows that there were more than 910 million mobile subscriptions in Africa by the first quarter of this year and a growing number of these mobile users are now walking around with powerful smart devices that give them access to applications and information where they are.

In 2002, roughly one-in-10 owned a mobile phone in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana and from there, cell phone ownership has grown exponentially.

The Pew Research Centre’s Spring 2014 Global Attitude Survey, done in seven countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa where 7,052 respondents were involved, found low ownership of smartphones in Africa but cell phone was common.

South Africa was leading by having more smartphones by 34 per cent followed by 27 per cent Nigeria, 15 per cent in Senegal and Kenya, 14 in Ghana, eight and five in Tanzania and Uganda respectively.

But a recent trend shows that there is room for the growth of smartphone application and ownership in Tanzania as the number of smart phone companies have been moving to launch their products in Africa, Tanzania included, leading to price fall in the devices.

IDC Q1 2015 Middle Phone Tracker report shows that smartphones accounted for 63 per cent of handsets shipped in the Middle East during the quarter and 47 per cent in Africa.

“This comes at the expense of feature phones, which suffered year-on-year declines of around 20 per cent in both regions and will make up just 27 per cent of the overall MEA handset market by the end of 2019,” notes the report.

Challenges with the trend is likely to be the type of activities that cell phone owners do with their devices, given that some studies show the most activity is texting short messages. A Pew Research Centre has established that a median of 80 per cent of mobile phone owners across the seven surveyed sub-Saharan countries use mainly their phones to send and receive short messages.

“This includes 95 per cent in South Africa and 92 per cent in Tanzania. In all the countries, at least half of the cell phone owners say they text messages with their devices,” notes the study. Taking picture and videos was the second popular activity as a meridian of 53 per cent among cell phone owners say they had done the activity the previous year.

It was found that only 14 per cent use their mobile phones to get consumer information and 30 per cent use their devices to make payments.

Globally, Ooyala Q1 global Video Index says by the end of 2015 more than 50 per cent of all video plays will be on mobile – the trend that advertisers need to know as much as possible in order to be successful.

In its study, Hellofood found that taking pictures and browsing the web for information were still dominating cell phone usage and when it comes to mobile banking and payment most users still seem slightly wary.

But Mr Falter still hopes that mobile phone owners will in the near future increasingly use their devices to order food online because last year, the online delivery platform counted the same quantity of orders from mobile phones as from desktops: both accounted for 50 per cent of the total.