gcc digital media landscape
DESCRIPTION
Stats and insights on Internet and digital media usage and trends in the Arab Gulf States mainly UAE and Saudi ArabiaTRANSCRIPT
Digital Media Landscape
GCC Market
by
@rania711
Executive Summary
• Internet users in GCC grew by more than 2000% from Dec 2000 to Jun 2012.
• Arabic is the fastest growing language on the Web with a penetration rate of 18% worldwide.
• Saudi has the highest number of YouTube views in the world per Internet user.
• Facebook users in the Region increased by 50% between Jun 2011 and Jun 2012 .
• By 2015, Ecommerce in the GCC will have grown to USD 15 billion up from USD 3.3 billion in 2010.*
• Saudi and UAE are the World’s leaders in smartphone penetration at 60% and 61% respectively.
• 27% of marketing budgets were allocated to digital in 2012, up from 22% in 2011, with potential to increase by at least 20%. (EConsultancy, Feb 2012)
* Source: UK’s Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Visa quoted in The Edge online article.
The Internet
Growth compared to the rest of the world
Source: Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2012, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.
No. of Internet users in the GCC
Millions of users
Source: Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2012, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.
Country Population(2012)
Users in Dec 2000
Internet Usage
30 Jun 12
%population penetration
Facebook users 30 Sep 12
Kuwait 2,646,314 150,000 1,963,565 74.2% 824,880
Qatar 1,951,591 30,000 1,682,271 86.2% 727,980
Saudi Arabia 26,534,504 200,000 13,000,000 49.0% 5,536,280
UAE 8,264,070 735,000 5,859,118 70.9% 3,190,660
Growth between Dec 2000 and 30 Jun 2012
Source: Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2012, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.
Arabic in the top 10 Languages on the Internet
Source: data published by Nielsen Online, International Telecommunications Union, GfK, and other reliable sources.
Arabic is the fastest growing language on the Internet at the rate of 2,501.2% on 31 May 2011 compared to 2000, and a penetration rate of 18.8% making it the 7th most spoken language on the Internet.
Popular Arabic WebsitesName Description URL
Google Saudi Arabia The third Arabic interface page of the search engine Google google.com.sa
MSN Arabia Incarnation of the worldwide Microsoft network portal site Localized for users in the Arab World, in Arabic & English
Arabia.msn.com
Maktoob The first web-based e-mail service To allow use of Arabic as well as English. It was acquired by Yahoo to become its Arabic interface website
maktoob.com
Al-Jazeera Internet edition of the Arab World’s most famous satellite TV station. Aljazeera.net
Al-Saha Al-Arabiya One of the oldest since 1998 and best-known Arabic discussion Forums, popular among all political Persuasions, especially in the UAE And Saudi Arabia
alsaha.com
google.ae Google’s first Arabic version google.aeKooora Soccer portal kooora.comHawaaworld Portal for women, conventional outlook hawaaworld.com6arab.com Real audio files of popular Arabic music 6arab.comJeeran Arab web hosting community jeeran.comShabakat Oz Kuwaiti portal: chat, clubs, pictures Software downloads ozq8.com
Source: Morris Kalliny (2012): What Advertisers Need to Know About Promotion in theArab World: Technology and Media Perspectives, Journal of Promotion Management, 18:4, 436-457 Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2012.715124
Social Media
follows the global trendsSocial Media in the GCC
New!
50% increase in Facebook users in MENA region
Jun 2011 Jun 2012
29,845,871
45,194,452
Source: Arab Social Media Report (June 2012)
Facebook users in GCC (Jun 2012)and ranking in the Middle East
Saudi: 5.5m UAE: 3.2m Kuwait: 992KQatar: 568K
Source: Arab Social Media Report (June 2012)
Source: Arab Social Media Report (June 2012)
Source: Arab Social Media Report (July 2012)
Saudi Arabia is the only GCC state that appears to prefer Facebook’s Arabic interface more than the English one.
عربي
Twitter active users in GCC (Jun 2012)and ranking in the Middle East
Source: Arab Social Media Report (July 2012)
Linkedin subscribers in GCC (Jun 2012)and ranking in the Middle East
UAE: 1.035m Saudi: 710KQatar: 189KKuwait: 175K
Source: Arab Social Media Report (2012)
State of the Arabic Blogosphere40,000 Arabic Blogs (Kalliny, 2012)
Arab Youth Survey May 2012
Source: Morris Kalliny (2012): What Advertisers Need to Know About Promotion in the Arab World: Technology and Media Perspectives, Journal of Promotion Management, 18:4, 436-457 Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2012.715124
GCC Blogs
Sample
Aboflan.com (a Kuwaiti blogger – good example)
Kuwaiti blogs are sophisticated and well connected with content distributed across platforms.
Social Media in the GCCwho’s using it, how and why?
Female to Male avg. is 50/50
Social Media usage by Gender
Female to Male avg. is 35/65
World Wide Trend
GCC
Source: Arab Social Media Report (June 2012)
<
Mainly due to societal & cultural limitations: Family/society barriers and stereotypes placed on women
Sources: http://www.statscrop.com http://www.arabsocialmediareport.com/UserManagement/PDF/ASMR%204%20updated%2029%2008%2012.pdf
Sample of Saudi daily social media consumption
Youtube Google Plus facebook Twitter Instagram
938,070
682,227
815,535
215,985
441
Nu
mb
er
of
vis
its
Saudi Arabia leads the Arab world in the number of daily visits at ~1 million.There are 90 million video views in Saudi per day (the highest number of YouTube views in the world per Internet user).
Local communities
Politicians
Governments
Businesses
Ecommerce
Leading in Ecommerce spending
(2011)
UAE Saudi
USD 2 Billion
USD 520 Million
Source: According to recent research done by Visa in 2011 sited by Sacha Orlof Group in their report “Saudi Arabia Retail Prospects and Outlook for 2012” available online
Online Retailers and Group buying sites
Source: TwoFour54 white paper “Group buying sites take the UAE by storm” available online.
serving as a catalyst to push buying power online
The Future
UAE and Saudi leading the world in smartphone penetration
Sources: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplanet (2012)http://googlemobileads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/new-research-shows-6-countries-are.html (May, 2012)
Smartphones are a valuable research tool
Saudi
Sources: Our Mobile Planet: Saudi Arabia and Our Mobile Planet: UAE (Google, May 2012)
UAE
How smartphones are being usedU
AE
KS
A
UA
E
KS
A
UA
E
KS
A
UA
E
KS
A
UA
E
KS
A
Access Internet Daily Use mobile while watching TV
Take action upon re-searching - i.e. buy or
contact a business
Make a purchase See an offline Ad then research on
mobile
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
71%66%
52%
34%
92%
77%
39%
25%
78%70%
Sourc
es:
Our
Mobile
Pla
net:
Saudi A
rabia
and
Our
Mobile
Pla
net:
UA
E (
Goog
le,
May 2
01
2)
Sources: Our Mobile Planet: Saudi Arabia and Our Mobile Planet: UAE (Google, May 2012)
Sources: Our Mobile Planet: Saudi Arabia and Our Mobile Planet: UAE (Google, May 2012)
Ends