Mobile instant messaging service 2go is Nigeria’s biggest social network with 13 million users in the country, according to a research company.

This is according to strategy and communications consulting firm, ‘africapractice’, in its social media report titled “The Social Media Landscape in Nigeria”.

The report goes on to say that the country’s next biggest social network is Eskimi with 8.8 million users in Nigeria, while WhatsApp has 6 million. Meanwhile, the report says Facebook has 6.5 million users in Nigeria.

The report, which the firm describes as the “first of its kind”, discusses social media in Nigeria in terms of the shift to mobile platforms, notable platforms and personalities, preference for micro-blogging and social media.

The report also reveals that mobile chat apps are used as a relationship among civic engagement, accountability, engagement and new age branding.

And according to the report, platforms such as mobile chat apps and micro-blogs, in particular, are gaining traction in the West African nation.

Last year 2go co-founder Alan Wolff told ITWeb Africa that his service, which is headquartered in Cape Town, had over 20 million registered users across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

He also stated that said 2go delivers over 7 billion messages per month.

Research firm africapractice has attributed the growth and popularity of mobile chat platforms like 2go to the fact that “mobile chat apps perform well on lower bandwidths and use less data, and are a cheaper alternative to SMS”.

And despite Facebook having a user base of 6.5 million in the West African country, the social media report has noted that Nigerians prefer to use mobile chat applications as opposed to the social network.

“Facebook numbers have been on a slow decline,” the report reads.

“The popular network is slowly losing active users (logged in and engaged) to platforms such as mobile chat apps and microblogs,” it states.