ME companies need to manage social communities: Deloitte
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Social networking sites have increased in popularity in part as a result of the Arab Spring, as expressed in the fourth edition of the Arab Media Outlook (AMO), developed in collaboration with Deloitte. One platform in particular which witnessed a significant increase in users across the Arab region, was Facebook, growing by 80% in the Arab world alone in 2011. As per Facebook’s recently published figures, the MENA region has 45 million monthly active users and 20 million mobile monthly active users on the social network.
In addition, platforms such as Facebook have been found to create economic value through enabling ecosystems, according to Deloitte’s study ‘Measuring Facebook’s Economic Impact in Europe’. According to the study, Facebook embodies a new generation of social media organizations that have a significant global impact.
“Companies and advertisers are aware of the widespread use and importance of Facebook throughout the region, and have tailored their digital strategies to target Middle Eastern users through the platform,” said Santino Saguto, partner in charge for the Telecommunications, Media and Technology (TMT) industry, Deloitte Middle East.
Facebook penetration showed that markets such as Egypt added close to 2 million new Facebook users in the first quarter of 2011 alone. Over 90% of all internet users in the UAE are on social networking sites like Facebook. In addition, frequency of use has significantly increased in the past couple of years with over 65% of these users visiting social networks more than once a day in UAE and Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly the Arabic version of Facebook has captured the lion share of audience with nearly 90% of respondents in Saudi Arabia using Facebook’s Arabic version.