While internet users in the Arab world today make up less than 0.5% of the global internet population, they have been growing at a faster than average rate. Today, our research indicates that the internet penetration rate in the Arab region as a whole stands at 36% (compared to a global average of 40% of the world’s population that is connected to the web). You got it, Arabs love the internet. In fact, the proportion of Arabs online grew 30-fold between 2000 and 2012. For instance, over 40% of Saudi internet users today are on Twitter, the highest rate in the world. The recently launched white paper by Bayt.com and the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government discusses ’Online Trends and Mobile Usage in the Arab Region in 2014‘. It reveals that there are more than 135 million individuals using the internet in the Arab world today. This is coupled with a mobile penetration rate of around 110%, and more than 71 million active users of social networking technologies. The ‘Arab World Online 2014: Trends in Internet and Mobile Usage in the Arab Region’ white paper is the second in a series of similar studies (have a look at the paper’s first edition). It examines internet and mobile usage trends in the Arab region. The paper aims to help decision makers, governments and organizations with updated information on the usage trends in an ever-changing digital landscape in the Arab world. But how are Arabs accessing and using the internet? Here are some of the ways people in the Arab world use the internet: 1. 60% of Arab users prefer using Arabic when browsing the internet 2. A quarter of the Arab region (25%) spend 5-7 hours a day on the internet 3. Facebook is the most popular social network in the Arab world, with 91% having a Facebook account 4. 22% of Arab mobile users have 11-25 apps on their smartphone 5. 41% of Arabs complain from the unavailability of Arabic language content 6. 63% of respondents research their interests online at least once a day 7. Half of internet users in the Arab region watch video clips at least once a day 8. Three quarters of the Arab region (72%) feel that online activity has disrupted normal social activity 9. Most Arabs (28%) believe that children shouldn't be allowed to own internet-enabled devices before they’re 16 years old 10. 94% of Arab respondents agree that the internet has provided them with more learning opportunities Looking at the above, we can say that the economic impact of internet growth in the Arab region will only increase going forward. Luckily for digital marketers and advertisers, there are more and more opportunities to reach an ever-increasing Arab population that is fully connected and increasingly mobile. One way of doing this would by making use of leading educational platforms online. Bayt.com, for example, has recently launched its Educator Program, the first-ever initiative to connect between academics from the Middle East’s top universities and professionals. You can check this inspiring new program by joining our exciting social arm, Bayt.com Specialties now. From the survey, we can also conclude that the limited availability of relevant Arabic content online is a key barrier facing the Arab world, consumers and businesses alike. It is therefore vital to develop content that Arabs can relate to. For example, multi-lingual websites, mobile apps and scientific research (if we take Wikipedia as an example, less than 0.9% of the 31 million articles created on that platform are in Arabic, although Arabic is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world).
