Social Networks in the Middle East, Gulf and Saudi Arabia - Literature review Example

? Close to 4% of the world’s internet users are from the Middle East where 40% of the population in the region have internet access and 80% of the internet users visit social network sites (GO-Gulf, 2013). This is comparable with other parts of the world where every 4 out of five-internet users use social networks. Statistics show that in the recent past there has been a significant adoption and use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and LinkedIn; moreover, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the region’s major social network platforms (Richards, 2012). The regions digital market has increased tremendously in 2011, with a 240% rise of twitter users in Saudi Arabia in 2011 (Ramzy, n.d) Social Media Sites Number of Users (in millions)     Facebook 58 Twitter 6.5 LinkedIn 5.8 (GO-Gulf 2013) Facebook is the leading social network platform in the region where United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the highest penetration with the service reaching to about 40% of the population. In terms of penetration, LinkedIn has overtaken Twitter especially in the UAE where the business-oriented network LinkedIn reaches 12% of the population compared to 3% for twitter (Richards, 2012) In the Middle East, that 65% of the social media users are male whereas only 35% are female (GO-Gulf, 2013). This is one of the major differences in social media usage between the MENA countries and other parts of the world where statistics show that women are more likely to use social networks than men. Female users in the world stand at around 71% compared to 62% male users. The low number of females in the Middle East is attributed to the religious and cultural restrictions imposed upon women. Women are confined to networking with the family only (Walid andMounira, S, 2013). The greatest percentage of social network users is between the age of 18 and 34 which make up 68% of the social network users whereas the most popular topic for discussion in social networks is music and movies, which take about 67% of conversations in the social networks. On the other hand, religion is the least favourable topic for discussion in the social networks (GO-Gulf, 2013). In the recent past, Iraq, Egypt and Algeria have experienced the biggest facebook usage surge with increases between 48 and 61%., due to the facebook blackout that was imposed by the fallen regime in Libya, facebook usage has dropped in Libya but it is expected to rise after it was revived (Messieh, 2011). The rise in facebook usage in these countries is attributed to the role of facebook and social media in general in the Arab Spring that saw the fall of major autocratic regimes (Dennis, Martin and Wood, 2013). For instance, News Group, a Dubai based company released a report for which they had monitored social network activities of over ten million accounts a day prior to the events at Tahrir square. They concluded that there were indications of unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world before it got into News headlines (Himelfarb, 2011) The Most Popular Topics for Social Media Users in the Middle East Topics %age     Music & Movies 67% Community Issues 46% Sports 43% Politics 34% Religion 14% (GO-Gulf 2013) Egypt has the largest market for social networks in the region even though the penetration is quite low at around 13%. Statistics show that 1 in every four Arabs in facebook are Egyptians while 80% of the Market share in the gulf region is in the United Arab Emirates (EAU) and Saudi Arabia ( Richards, 2012). The country with the largest social media penetration is the UAE with 47.83% of the population on the social media (Messieh, 2011) The number of social network users is increasing in the region for instance; Egypt alone had more than 1.6 million people who joined facebook between January and September 2012. Saudi Arabia and Syria have also seen close to one million new members join the service whereas it is only Turkey and Djibouti that registered a fall in number of members in facebook in 2012. Twitter has also seen a tremendous growth in the region with more than two million members in June 2012 from 1.2 million in mid-2011 (Wilder, 2012). The region has experienced a massive development in social network which is exemplified by the social, cultural and political impact of digital networks in the region (Aziz, 2011). Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging platforms and YouTube are the five leading social networks in the MENA region with more than 40% of the people between the ages of 20 and 29 spending up to ten hours per week in social media (Khan, 2013). Social media is becoming the source for breaking news among other uses like marketing and connecting with friends in the region. A survey carried out in the region indicated that most people prefer to interact via social media to other modes of communication. The survey showed that 64% chose to communicate with distant friends via social media, 51% are comfortable communicating with close friends via social media, 51% prefer engaging with others through social media to engaging in person while 51% prefer interacting via social media to interacting via telephone (AMEinfo, 2013). Percentage penetration of social media users in selected Arab countries by social network (June 2012) (Richards, 2012) In terms of actual users, Egypt continues to dominate by share of Facebook users with nearly 11m user accounts (making up 25% of the total MENA number), even though the penetration rate for Facebook is only 13% (Richards, 2012). Number of Facebook users and percentage of users in the Arab region (June 2012) (Richards, 2012) Social network in the Middle East has of course come with its effects on the social, cultural and political arenas in the region. A survey done on the MENA countries indicate that digital networks have empowered people to influence and embrace change in the society. From the results if the survey Kuwait is on the top where 51% of the social network users said that, social networks have empowered them to influence change in the society. (Richards, 2012) Some people said that social networks have helped them embrace viewing things in a wide spectrum and different perspectives. It was also said to have a positive effect on tolerance where people can tolerate different points of view as opposed to being bigots (Richards, 2012) The survey also showed that social networks also help in strengthening regional, national and religious identities in the region. Most of the social network users in the region feel like a global citizen after interacting with others in the network. It is very clear that the use of social networks in the MENA region is on the rise and the Arab people are now embracing digital networks (AMEinfo. 2013) It is of great essence that investors should know the specific networks in specific countries and understand the relationship that the users have with the networks. This can help take maximum use of the networks in advertisements and even marketing their products. (Khare 2012) “Social media played a role in empowering me to influence change in my community/country (% of respondents)” (Richards, 2012) Just as reflected by the statistics of the MENA countries, social networking is the fastest growing social behaviour in the internet in the world. Percentage of social network users is increasing from 36% in 2011 to close to 60% of internet users globally. The largest internet market is in Asia where China is leading with about 84% of internet users; moreover, 44% of all internet users are in Asia where China accounts for 485 million users even though its penetration is quite low at around 36% (Dennis, Martin and Wood, 2013). In USA, 76% of social media users are spectators (passive users) who read other people’s posts but they do not post their own; in Europe, spectators account for 69% of the users and only ? are creators (active users). China and India have 78% and 80% of creators of social media respectively whereas Japan has an overwhelming majority of spectators making it the only country in the region with a spectator trend like in the western market (Social bakers, 2011). Philippines, Australia and Indonesia are the leading countries in terms of penetration with 90%, 89%, and 88% of their internet users visiting a social network site every month respectively. It is important to note that over 71% of internet consumers in Southeast Asia are greatly influenced by website advertisements on social media. This is a very big percentage compared to the global percentage, which is at 52% (Daaboul, 2013). In MENA, countries social media for business statistics 2012 indicate that 36% of social media users post brand related content while 50% of users follow brand related posts. Two out of three users believe that social media has an influence on purchases (Radcliffe, 2013). It is also highlighted that one in every three small businesses are now using social media whereas 88% of agencies surveyed would use facebook to advertise their goods or services either by purchasing ads, creating pages or groups or other methods of engagement (Hess, 2012). The increasing usage of social networks in the Arab region and in the world in general is attributed to the growing ubiquity of smart phones. Statistics show that 40% of cell phone owners use a social network application on their phone that has made social networks just a finger tap away. References AMEinfo. 2013.'Life on Demand' shows impact of social media in the Middle East. Mediaquest FZLLC. [online] Available at: http://www.ameinfo.com/life-demand-highlights-impact-social-media-348929 [Accessed 5 August 2013] Aziz, A. 2011. Social Networks Future & Middle East. DayPress [online] Available at: http://www.dp-news.com/en/detail.aspx?articleid=86093 [Accessed 5 August 2013]. Daaboul, N. 2013. Social MEdia Bytes #6 – Social Media Usage in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia as the World Top Youtube Nation. social4ce. [online] Available at: http://social4ce.com/blog/2013/05/03/social-media-bytes-6-social-media-usage-in-the-middle-east-saudi-arabia-as-the-world-top-youtube-nation/ [Accessed 5 August 2013] Dennis, E.E., Martin, J.D and Wood, H. 2013. How People in the Middle East Actually Use Social Media. 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