The annual, in-depth look into what’s happening where in digital is here. From a Middle East perspective, there are some great insights for marketers and product teams – perhaps some assumptions that should be challenged.
Often, there is a tendency for product teams to develop for one OS or another based on an ideological connection to one or the other. You are either an Apple person or an Android person. But the data is pretty clear… if you had to choose only one, based on volume, you’d pick Android.
Which #mobile platform and devices should you be developing products for? #ux #productdevelopment pic.twitter.com/OIKOftrgSI
— David Fuller (@dmfreedom) January 31, 2018
As well as the global report, there are also detailed, country-by country reports available. One of the insights I had, perhaps more of a reminder, is to be careful when looking at information at a regional level versus a country. Not all countries in a region are the same, and in-fact, the most populous or wealthy market my skew the figures one way or another.
This is especially true for the Middle East, or as the report defines it – ‘Western Asia’. The numbers for UAE, which has a population of about 9.2 Million versus Saudi Arabia with a population of around 32 Million are quite different.
As an example… Total social media penetration in the UAE is 99% versus 75% in Saudi. Active mobile social media usage in the UAE is 92%, while in KSA it is 54%. This is despite the fact that mobile penetration in the UAE is 202% and 171% in KSA.
Some other interesting comparisons relate to device types and the user experience.
In the UAE internet usage by device:
- Desktop 36% down 6%
- Mobile 61% up 6% (Average speed 50 mbps)
- Tablet 3% down 27%
- Other devices e.g. Game consoles 0.07% down 30%
In KSA, the same figures are:
- Desktop 33% down 20%
- Mobile 64% up 16% (Average speed 16 mbps)
- Tablet 2% down 31%
- Other devices .42% up 110%
It seems that smart-phones with larger screens are eating into the tablet space, with consumers deciding that they don’t need a tablet device as well as 2 phones. There is a large different in the average speed of mobile data in each country which has big implications for companies designing heavy apps for mobile.
I’ll write a separate blog on Ecommerce in the region, based on the report, but its interesting to note that in the UAE, Souq is the 7th most visited site. In KSA, Amazon is the 10th most visited site. No other ecommerce sites are listed.
Information about other GCC and Middle East countries including Kuwait, Oman etc is included in the report.
2018 Report for the Middle East, including UAE and Saudi Arabia
Compare to 2017 – Read last year’s Report.
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