More promising statistics from the Middle East – and a confirmation of the pivotal role social media is playing to make communication and freedom of expression easier around the world. The infographic below is from our friends at IQPC and SocialBakers.
A huge failing of this report is that it ignores MENA’s largest market and internet audience – Egypt, whose 5M+ Facebook users are key to understanding trends and opportunities in the region.
Key highlights:
- 30.2 million social media users
- 15 million Facebook users
- 5.5 million Twitter users – 40% from UAE
- 240% increase in Twitter users in Saudi Arabia in 2010
- ~70% of companies increased digital media budgets in 2011
- Most social country: UAE
ArabCrunch reports:
Other interesting figures from the report is that there is 15 million Facebook users, that number however might not be accurate as in Q1 2010 our sources inside Facebook estimated the number around 16-18 million users.
The complete inforgraghic is below, we have another two reservations, e-marketing budgets from the Arab world does not include banners ads spending as it focus on email marketing, smart phone apps, SMS marketing, social media marketing and google adwords. Another one it does not mention the source of the numbers for Twitter users!
Ari Kesisoglu – Regional Manager, Middle East North Africa said that online ad spending in the MENA region is between 110 to 130 Million USD annually, thus the report should include banner ad spending to offer a complete picture.
