The fastest growing age group among Facebook users in South Africa is the over-60s, according to a latest study from technology market researchers World Wide Worx and information analysts Fuseware.

The study, entitled South African Social Media Landscape 2012, says that from August 2011 to August 2012, the number of over-60s on Facebook in SA grew by 44%, compared to less than 30% for those aged 30-60, less than 20% for those aged 19-30, and less than 10% for teenagers.

"This is a reflection of Facebook going mainstream in South Africa," says World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck, in a statement on his website.

"The younger segments are still far from saturation, but we're not seeing the same heady pace of growth among the youth as before," he added.

Other stats revealed by the study include that at the end of August, 5.33-million South Africans were using Facebook on the web, 2,43-million were on Twitter and 9,35-million on mobile social networking platform Mxit.

The World Wide Worx team further said, though, that 6.8-million people access Facebook on their mobile phones.

Fuseware representatives say that this Twitter data has been collected from an application programme interface (API).

Other key findings of the study according to World Wide Worx include the following:

• Both Facebook and Twitter have grown at a similar rate, at around 100 000 new users a month, for the past year.
• LinkedIn has grown substantially, but at a slightly lower rate, to reach 1,93-million South Africans.
• Pinterest is struggling among the major social networks, with only 150 000 users in South Africa.
• Mobile application WhatsApp has become the leading instant messaging tool among South Africans aged 16 and over, living in cities and towns, with a user base of 4,6-million.
• The youngest mobile instant messaging tool to emerge on the measurement radar in South Africa, 2Go, has close to a million adult users.
• The most common "check in" places for Facebook users in South Africa are airports and shopping malls.
• The biggest tweeting day of the week is a Monday, with an average of 9,6-million tweets sent by South Africans on the first working day of the week. Friday is next, with 9.6-million, while Saturday is the slowest Twitter day, with 8,4-million tweets.
• Both Facebook and Twitter have crossed the urban/rural divide. The proportion of urban adults using Facebook is a little less than double rural users – but rural users are now at the level where urban users were 18 months ago. Twitter's urban penetration is a little more than double its rural penetration, but the rural proportion has also caught up to where the urban proportion was 18 months ago.