How the Middle East uses Social Media: 20 standout stats from 2020

This week saw the publication of a new report, “How the Middle East Used Social Media in 2020,” produced in partnership with the New Media Academy in the United Arab Emirates, and offering the most up to date — and comprehensive — look at the trends that shaped social media in the MENA region last year.

My co-author Hadil Abuhmaid and I consulted more than 200 different sources — from academics, news releases, interviews, media and event coverage, as well as studies produced by agencies and brands — to provide a data-rich evidence base outlining the latest trends in social media habits and behaviors across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Below, we share some of the most notable data-points.

Social Media in the Middle East: 20 standout stats

1. Social Media Users in MEA (Middle East and Africa) and Latin America spend the most time on social networks, averaging over three and a half hours a day.
2. More than half of users in MEA (57%) reported (May 2020) that they were spending even more time on social media as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Similarly, in a separate study, 71% of Middle East respondents reported their usage of WhatsApp and other messaging apps had increased since the outbreak of the pandemic.
4. 75% of users said their consumption of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok had increased as a result of social distancing. This is “substantially more than the average of 52% for all (8 other) territories,” in the sample surveyed by PwC in May 2020.
5. Internet users in the Middle East have an average of 8.4 social media accounts, research from GlobalWebIndex (GWI) reveals.
6. UAE, with an average of 10.5 accounts, is “the highest number of social media accounts per person globally,” Forbes reports.
7. Egypt is the 9th largest national market for Facebook in the world, with 44 million users, as of October 2020.

1. Libya (100%), UAE (93%) and Qatar (90%) are among the countries with the highest levels of reach for Facebook, relative to the population, according to data from We Are Social and Hootsuite.
2. Egypt, Morocco and Algeria are ranked in the Top 10 territories for the fastest growing number of Facebook users, demonstrating how Facebook is continuing to grow in several North African markets.
3. Four MENA countries — Saudi Arabia (17.9 million users), Turkey (9.7m), Iraq (9.6m) and Egypt (8.9m) are in the Top 13 largest markets for Snapchat worldwide. (They are ranked, 5th, 10th, 11th and 13th respectively).
4. Snapchatters in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, spent 77 minutes a day on the app during Ramadan 2020.
5. Snapchat now reaches 67 million unique users in the region each month, up 38% year-on-year (as of October 2020).
6. Over 85% of daily Snapchatters in MENA interact with Lenses every day.
7. ?Three MENA nations — Turkey 6th (at 44 million), Saudi Arabia 16th (15 million) and Egypt 20th (14 million) — are in the Top 20 for largest audiences, by country, for Instagram in the world.
8. More than half of people online in Kuwait (4th/66%), Turkey (5th/ 66%), Bahrain (9th/61%), and Israel (17th/56%) use Instagram.
9. 79% of Arab Youth say they get their news from social media. That’s up from 25% in 2015, according to the latest Arab Social Media report.
10. Lebanese pop artist, Elissa, is the Arab world’s most influential person on Twitter and the only Arab figure to make a list of 50 most powerful international influencers, on the social network, a report published by Brandwatch revealed.

1. Top TikTok influencers in the GCC grew their followers by an average of 65%, between February and August 2020. Engagement was highest in Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia, Anavizio Data Solutions reported.
2. 70% of Egypt’s Internet users watch YouTube on a daily basis.
3. Six YouTube creators grabbed a Guinness World Records title this Ramadan, after 183,544 concurrent viewers joined them for a virtual iftar, the “most viewers for an Iftar YouTube live stream.”

Dig Deeper

Want to know more? Then why not download the full report, “How The Middle East used Social Media in 2020.”

Clocking in at just over 60 pages, it explores regional market data, developments across seven major social networks, examples of trending content, and the challenges of managing misinformation and COVID-19.

This new report is free to download and available in: English: https://newmediaacademy.ae/en/2020-annual-social-media-report/

And Arabic: https://newmediaacademy.ae/en/2020-annual-social-media-report/

Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, a Professor of Practice, an affiliate of the Department for Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA), and a Research Associate of the Center for Science Communication Research (SCR) at the University of Oregon.

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/damianradcliffe