The utilization of social media as a marketing tool has become an inescapable need for any organization looking for progress and development in its business. The total number of social media users was estimated at 3.8 billion users over a total number of a global population of about 7.75 billion in 2020 (i.e. 49%), with an annual growth rate of 9.2% compared to 2019. On the other hand, mobile users were estimated at about 5.2 billion (about 67% of the total population). The evolution of the global mobile data consumption is increasing exponentially. (Hootsuite, Digital 2020, Global Digital Overview).
Social media delivers a new way to businesses that are interactive with the customers; it will completely convert the way of business.
In the meantime, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the users’ behaviors shifted, sometimes starkly, toward more use of devices for work, play and connecting. With the rise of social distancing, people are seeking out new ways to connect, mostly through video chat. If at all the year 2020 offered something good to someone, it is certainly to the social media industry. For example, Facebook alone has attracted 100 million new users in 2020.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
The value of the total digital advertising market reached $334 billion, of which $89.9 billion spent on social media compared to $127.9 billion spent on digital search ads in 2019. According to the data about advert expenditure, Google is the most popular advertising tool, the total expenditure reached about $103.7 billion in 2019 followed by Facebook ($67.4 billion), Alibaba ($29.2 billion) and Amazon ($14.0 billion).
Nevertheless, entrepreneurs and companies, including enormous and well established companies, face difficulties and real challenges in the web-based social media advertising tools, and at the forefront of these challenges is picking a social media platform or platforms that accomplish the marketing targets most productively. (Hootsuite, Digital 2020, Global Digital Overview).
Source : https://datareportal.com/
The Middle East is not an exception of this digital trend, where the total number of social media users was estimated at 125.4 million users over a total number of a total population of about 258.8 million in 2020 (i.e. 48%) (Hootsuite, Digital 2020, Global Digital Overview).
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Two difficulties arise here, the first concerns identifying the media platforms that are generally favored by the company's audience, in addition to its current and expected customers. The second relating to investigating the tendencies and interests of the target audiences within each social media platform.
In this article, we present to our readers the most recent insights related to the use of social media in the Arab countries of the Gulf region. We will present more specifically the tendencies and interests of the users from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the State of Kuwait. Moreover, the readers will find the mains statistics about internet and Facebook users in the Arab world as a whole for 2020.
Two difficulties arise here, the first concerns identifying the media platforms that are generally favored by the company's audience, in addition to its current and expected customers. The second relating to investigating the tendencies and interests of the target audiences within each social media platform.
In this article, we present to our readers the most recent insights related to the use of social media in the Arab countries of the Gulf region. We will present more specifically the tendencies and interests of the users from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the State of Kuwait. Moreover, the readers will find the mains statistics about internet and Facebook users in the Arab world as a whole for 2020.
* For the population it is the Urbanisation rate, for mobile connections: rate vs. population, the other numbers are the penetration rates.
Youtube, Facebook and Instagram has relatively high shares of population that marketers can reach with adverts (population aged 13+); with a percentage of reach of 33%, 32% and 15% respectively. LinkedIn, Snapchat and Twitter have relatively lower rates: with a percentage of reach of 12%, 6.3% and 5.6% respectively. With about 2.8% of share of population that marketers can reach, Pintrest has a relatively very low share (Hootsuite, Digital 2020, Global Digital Overview).
On the other hand other, there exists less popular social media platforms, but have relatively high shares of population that marketers can reach with adverts such as Wechat, QQ and QZone with a percentage of reach of 19%, 12% and 8.6% respectively. (Hootsuite, Digital 2020, Global Digital Overview).
For entrepreneurs and startups, these social media platforms are indispensible sources to create awareness about their brands within their target customers.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Hereafter we will explore the use of social media in the Arab countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
First: Kingdom Saudi Arabia
The total number of internet users in Saudi Arabia is about 32 million users, or 93% of the total population. Saudi Arabia ranks 5th within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).
Source : https://datareportal.com/
According to communications and information technology commission (CITC) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom is the region’s largest ICT market and ranks 13th globally, with a value of $28.7 billion in 2019 and strong growth in both the consumer and enterprise segments. Saudi Arabia is a market of early technology adopters, with one of the highest social media penetrations in the world. Mobile subscribers stood at 43.8 million in 2019, representing a 129% penetration of the total population, Facebook being the most used social media followed by Instagram and Snapchat.
The below figure present the percentage of internet users aged 16 to 64 years old who report using each platform in the past month.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Social media platforms in Saudi Arabia
1. Facebook
With 13 million users, Facebook ranked third in terms of the number of users in Saudi Arabia, most of them are males, or about 78% of the total users.
As for the age group, the statistics indicate that more than half of the users were aged between 26 and 40 years.
The top reasons for using Facebook in the Kingdom are for marketing, fashion, movies, travel purposes, sports, music and games. The total number of users per category ranges from 8 to 10 million, whereas watching television comes at the end with 6.5 million users. More than one tenth of the users are using the platform specifically to shop or find new products.
2. Instagram
Instagram is behind Facebook as the fourth most used social media platform in Saudi Arabia, with 12 million users, a third of whom are male. As for their interests, they appear similar to those of Facebook users. According to Hootsuite report, Saudi Arabia ranked 17 internationally in terms of Instagram reach.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
3. Twitter
Twitter is ranked second in the ranking of the most used social media in the Kingdom, as the number of its users exceeds 14 million users, and contrary to the gender distribution of the Facebook and Instagram platforms, the distribution by gender in Twitter is very close, females being about 48% of the total Twitter users. According to Hootsuite report Saudi Arabia ranked first in terms of eligible audience reach rate on twitter with a total potential twitter advertising reach of 53% compared to population aged 13+.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
As for the main reasons for using Twitter, there is a big difference compared to Instagram and Facebook, data show a great interest for games, this is clear from the big number of users as it reaches more than 10 million. On the other hand, with the exception of high interest for the television and music, with about 7.6 million and 2 million users for each, the other topics, such as travel and shopping, do not receive great attention from the users.
4. Snapchat
This platform is ranked first in Saudi Arabia in terms of the number of users ranging from 15.5 to 16.1 million users. While the percentage of female users is equal to that of male, this platform is the most used social media by females.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Source : https://datareportal.com/
As for the main reasons for using Snapchat in Saudi Arabia, data show several fields of interests from travel, with total users ranging from 7.6 to 7.94 million, to sport with total number of fans ranging from 7.4 to 7.7 million, to music, games, and food. Surprisingly important number of users shows interest in investment and entrepreneurship, ranging from 3.6 to 3.76 million users.
5. LinkedIn
The LinkedIn platform has 2.4 million users from the kingdom, males being the first using this platform, with 81% of the total number of users compared to only 19% for females.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Second: United Arab Emirates
According to the latest statistics, a whopping 99% of the UAE population remains active on internet. In 2020, an eyeball popping 9.73 million people come online on social media almost every day, this represents 99% of the population of 9.83 million people.
Youtube is the most popular social media platform in 2020 with 8.65 million users. Facebook has found favor among the commercial entities, the political class as well as the masses of the country. The latest data for 2020 show that, with 7.77 million users, Facebook is expected to remain a main social media force for many years to come. Several popular brands use Facebook to reach out to fans, though providing them unique offers.
With 3.8 million users most are young people, especially teenagers, Instagram emerged as a substantial competitor to Facebook. Other few social media platforms that are popular in the UAE are Twitter (53% penetration), LinkedIn (45% penetration), Pinterest (25% penetration) and Tumblr (20% penetration).
Source : https://datareportal.com/
1. Facebook
The number of Facebook users in the United Arab Emirates stands at about 9 million, meaning 92% of the current UAE population consumes Facebook content, and thus it is the largest social media in the UAE. Although Facebook is the most popular social media among females in the UAE, the gender gap is apparent with men thrice as much as women. The current male and female Facebook users are pegged at 74% and 26% respectively.
The main motivations for using Facebook are shopping, fashion, travel, sports, food and drink, movies and music. The estimated numbers of users ranging per category range from 6 million to 7 million, and at the top of these reasons are shopping and fashion. In addition to the previous topics, Facebook users in the UAE are interested in television and games, with an estimated numbers between 4.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.
2. Instagram
With about 3.8 million users, Instagram platform ranks second after Facebook in terms of number of users, most of them are males, or 63% of the total users compared to 36% for females. The main motivations for using Instagram appear very close to that of Facebook. Shopping, fashion, travel, sports, food, and drink, as well as movies, are at the forefront of the interests of Instagram users, followed by games and TV respectively.
3. Twitter
The total number of users on Twitter is 3 million, this put Twitter in the fourth rank behind Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. In contrast to Instagram and Facebook, the Twitter users are more gender-equal distribution, with about 42% of female using this platform.
Like all other social media in the UAE, the number of users in English exceeds those in Arabic.
It is noticeable that Twitter users in the UAE are more interested in news channels, as Sky News Arabia, Al Arabiya, and Al Hadath, as they are the largest number of followers, this seams coherent with when we know that the number users interested with television is 2 million, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the users in Twitter. Films come in the top of the list with 3 million users. In other words, all Twitter users in the UAE show some degree of interest in movies.
4. Snapchat
The number of Snapchat users in the UAE ranges between 2.1-2.3 million, and it is the least used social media in the UAE.
In contrast to the rest of social media, in Snapchat the number of female users exceeds that of males. The number of female Snapchat users is more than 1.1 million.
The Snapchat is distinguished from other platforms in the United Arab Emirates, by the diversity of interests of its users between fashion, shopping, games, music, entrepreneurship, investment, health, and lifestyle. The number of those interested in these topics ranges from 500 thousand to one million users.
5. LinkedIn
The number of LinkedIn users in the United Arab Emirates is about 3.4 million, and thus it is ranked third among the most used social media in the UAE after Facebook and Instagram, with a difference of 400,000 users with the latter.
Statistics also indicate that most users of LinkedIn in the Arab Gulf states are from the UAE. As per gender distribution, the majority of users are male, where their percentage is 70%.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Third: State of Kuwait
The State of Kuwait ranks second in terms of the percentage of users connected to the Internet in the Arab Gulf states, as the percentage of those connected to Internet out of the total population is about 99.1%. Facebook is ranked as the most used social media platform in Kuwait with a total of about 3.00 million active users. Instagram is ranked as the second most used with about 2 million monthly active users. Twitter comes next with about 1.7 million monthly active user. Snapchat also is one of popular social media platforms in Kuwait with total users of about 1.7 million monthly active users.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Social Media Penetration Rankings by country, January 2020
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Social media platforms in Kuwait
1. Facebook
With a total number of users of more than two million and 700 thousand users Facebook ranks first among social media in the State of Kuwait, which is equivalent to half the population of Kuwait, of whom 1.9 million are female users, which is the largest percentage of females participation on social media in the Arab Gulf region.
The main motivations for using Facebook in Kuwait are shopping and fashion in addition to music. The number of users interested in these two topics is more than two million users each, followed movies, food, drink, sports, travel, and games with about 2 million users for each. Finally comes the interest for the television with a difference of 500 thousand users with the previous topics.
It is also noted that the number of Facebook users in English is twice the number of users in Arabic.
2. Instagram
Instagram ranks second, along with Twitter, as the most used social media in Kuwait, with about two million users, most of them are males, i.e. about 1.3 million users compared, to 300 thousand users for females (64% and 36% respectively). As per the main motivations for using Instagram in Kuwait, data show a very close trend as for Facebook.
3. Twitter
As mentioned above, Twitter along with Instagram ranks second, as the most used social media in Kuwait, with about two million users, most of them are males (65%) compared to only 35% for females.
As per the main motivations for using Twitter in Kuwait, they are not much difference from the users of Facebook and Instagram.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
4. Snapchat
With a number of users which ranges between 1.6 and 1.7 million, Snapchat ranks before the last in terms of the number of users in Kuwait. As can be seen, the number of users is slightly lower than the users of Twitter and Instagram, not more than 300,000 users. It is the second most used social media by females after Facebook in Kuwait. The number of females using Snapchat has been estimated at about 780,000, i.e. 46% of the total users.
As per the main motivations for using Snapchat in Kuwait, they are more diverse than the other social media platforms, where the users of this platform show an interest in entrepreneurship, investment, cars, TV news, and lifestyle whether men or women. Snapchat users also show an interest in health topics. The estimated number of interested users ranges between 350 thousand and 900 thousand. Finally fitness is another topic of interest, with an estimated number of users of between 195 thousand and 203 thousand.
5. LinkedIn
The total number of LinkedIn users in Kuwait is about 530,000, most of them are males, or about 75% of the total users.
Fourth: Sultanate of Oman
Oman ranked last in the Arab Gulf states in terms of the percentage of users connected to the Internet out of the total population, which were estimated at Oman has 3.9 million internet users, about 78.5% of the total population.
According to a report of the National Centre of Statistics and Information (NCSI), based on a survey on social media behaviour an applications use, conducted in March 2019, most of Omanis, or 94%, own or use social media accounts. They spend up to six hours daily on social media. The report showed that 36% cent of Omanis trusts social media as a source of news and information about important events, compared with 35% who do not trust it.
Data of Hootsuite indicate that Facebook is the most common social media app in Oman, with about 1.5 million users, followed by Instagram with 1.4 million and Twitter with about 1.3 million users.
Social media platforms in the Sultanate of Oman
Source : https://datareportal.com/
1. Facebook
Facebook ranks top among all social media networks. The total number of users was estimated at about 1.5 million users, men represent the majority of the facebookers in Oman with about 78.4% compared to 21.6% for females.
2. Instagram
Data shows that Oman had 1.4 million users on Instagram, covering a total of 36% of the Sultanate’s total users of social media networks, of which 67.2% are males and 32.8% are females.
3. Twitter
The Twitter platform comes in third place after Instagram, with a total number of about 1.3 million users, of which about 70.4% are males and 29.6% are females.
4. Snapchat
Snapchat ranks just before the last place, with about 1.2 million users, of which 52.7% are females, and 45.6% males. In contrast to the rest of social media networks, the number of female users in Snapchat exceeds that of males in Oman. That was the case as well in the UAE.
5. LinkedIn
The Sultanate of Oman shows a wide use of the LinkedIn. The total number of LinkedIn users reaches 520,000 users. The distribution of users by gender does not differ much from the rest of the Arab Gulf states. Statistics show that 76.7% of LinkedIn users are males compared to 23.3% for females.
Fifth: State of Qatar
Qatar ranked in the top in terms of the percentage of those connected to Internet out of the total population within the Arab Gulf states. The percentage of those connected to Internet in Qatar reaches 99.6%.
Accoring to a report of focus on Qatar, of the web site Middleeastmedia, the top social networking sites used in Qatar are Facebook, with a total of 2.4 million active users, Twitter ranked second with total number of users of 974,000 users, and Instagram. Instagram is ranked third with total users of users of 960,000 users. LinkedIn is ranked fourth with an estimated total number of users of 840,000.Snapchat.
However, use of these sites differs considerably according to the population subsets. For example usage of Facebook is nearly universal across all expat groups in Qatar. Qataris, however, have not embraced Facebook for social networking to the same degree; only one third of Qatari nationals are on Facebook. In fact, Qataris are more likely to use Instagram (46%), they are using Twitter and Facebook in same way (37% and 36%).
Almost all internet users pass time online for leisure (94%), entertainment (71%). A similarly high level watch online videos (83%).
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Social media platforms in Qatar
1. Facebook
Facebook ranks first in Qatar as the most used social media medium, as the number of users of this platform is about 2.4 million users Facebook, of whom 76.3% are males, and 23.7% are females.
2. Instagram
Instagram ranks third behind Facebook and Twitter with a total number of users of about 960,000 users, of which 64.2% are males compared to 35.8% for female users.
3. Twitter
Twitter is the second most used social media platform after Facebook, with total users of about 974,000, of which 67.4% are males and 32.6% are females.
4. Snapchat
As for Snapchat, it is ranked last among social media platforms, with a number of users not exceeding 585 thousand, but what distinguishes this platform in Qatar is the greater percentage of female users which reaches 52.6% of the total users. This tendency could be seen as well in Oman and UAE.
5. linkedIn
LinkedIn ranks fourth within other social media networks most used in Qatar. The total number of users was estimated at about 840,000 users. This is about 150,000 lower than the other social media network such as Instagram and Twitter. Most of LinkedIn users are men with a total percentage of about 76.6% out of the total users.
Sixth: Kingdom of Bahrain
Bahrain ranks fourth compared to the Arab Gulf states in terms of the share of the population with internet connection, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Oman.
The percentage of users with internet connection in Bahrain to the total population is about 99%.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
Social media platforms in Bahrain
1. Facebook
The social media platforms in the Kingdom of Bahrain are characterized by the absence of significant differences in terms of the total number of users, consequently it is not possible to classify them in terms of the most popular network, except for LinkedIn which is the least popular. The differences in the number of users between each type of network do not exceed tens of thousands. The number of Facebook users in the Kingdom is estimated at about 840,000, of which 73.8% are males, and 26.2% are females.
2. Instagram
The number of Instagram users in Bahrain is about 720,000, of which 62% are males and 38% are females.
3. Snapchat
Snapchat is the most used social media platform in Bahrain by females, as their percentage to the total number of 885,000 users, is about 47.9%.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
4. Twitter
The number of Twitter users in Bahrain is about 818,000, of which 65.1% are males and 34.9% are females.
Source : https://datareportal.com/
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn platform is ranked last in terms of the social media popularity in Bahrain. The total number of users is estimated at about 340,000 users, of which70.9% are males and 29.1% are females.
