The internet has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, touching every aspect of our lives. Individuals worldwide are downloading educational material, shopping for gifts, snapping pictures and sharing them with loved ones on Facebook and Instagram, planning vacations, finding new jobs, planning careers, and even buying their cars using the internet. Not only has the web assisted in shaping our political persuasions, but also our personal interests. Today, there are more than 125 million internet users in the Arab region; and more than 53 million of them are actively using social media. As the number of internet users grow, the region changes, as suggested by a comprehensive regional research study recently conducted by Bayt.com and the Dubai School of Government which analyzes the trends of internet usage in the Arab region. We’ve summarized some of the findings of this exciting research below.
As suggested by the graph above, 61% of Arabs access the internet through a laptop or desktop, 16% use a smartphone to access the internet and 11% do so through a tablet, while 12% use a mobile phone. The trend is clear that accessing the internet using mobile devices is quickly approaching the usage of laptops and desktop computers, which makes it essential for companies to have a mobile-friendly version of their websites. Early to understand the need to cater to this trend, Bayt.com has had a mobile application since 2011 where jobseekers can access all the jobs advertised on the main site from their mobile device. The application is a great tool for jobseekers to search for and apply for jobs directly from their smartphone.
The responses gathered revealed that 49% of respondents spend most of their time on the internet after 6pm on workdays, while 16% spent most of their time on the internet between 8am and 12 pm on workdays. 13% do so between 12pm and 6pm on workdays. From the results we can see that Arab internet users are not very active online during lunch breaks at work or during holidays and weekends.
43% of respondents said they access social media at work, while 17% of respondents said it was not permitted or blocked. 33% claimed that they simply do not have the time to do so.
Drum roll…Online news sources and portals are still Arabs’ darlings when it comes to getting the latest info with 36% of respondents favoring them, though social media is picking up fast with 28% of respondents saying that they get their news from their favorite social networks, while another 28% get it from more traditional media sources.
Let’s have a look at how much time Arabs spend on each of the most famous social networks:
From the usage trends shown in the graphs above, we can see how popular Facebook is among internet users in the Arab region (54% use Facebook more than once a day), followed by Google+ (30%) and Twitter (14%).
From the graphs above we can see that 85% of Arabs agree that social media has enabled better social activity for them. In terms of learning opportunities, 88% of Arab internet users said that the internet has provided them with better learning opportunities. Interestingly, the internet no longer poses a clear-cut security threat for Arabs, as 27% do not see it as a threat to their privacy, while 34% have chosen to stay neutral. The results reported in this white paper are based on a regional survey administered by Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program in collaboration with Bayt.com, targeting residents of 22 Arab countries. The survey fielding was conducted in March 2013 with a total of 3373 respondents. Responses were received from all countries in the Arab region; from Algeria, Djibouti, and Morocco to Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE. For many more interesting facts about how Arabs use the internet, download and share the full report here.
