14


30% 70% Palestine


80% 20% Tunisia


70% 30% Morocco


75% 25% Algeria


80% 20% Lebanon


70% 30% Bahrain


40% 60% Iraq


70% 30% Kuwait


75% 25% Qatar


Afghanistan 100%


50% 50% Iran


90% 10% UAE


65% 35% Omen


70%


Mauritania 30%


40% 60% Libya


50% 50% Egypt


60% 40% Jordan


Note: Other languages disregarded Source: Informa Telecoms & Media


25% 75% Saudi Arabia


15% 5% 80% Syria


20% 80% Yemen


English French Arabic Persian


Figure 4: Facebook usage in MENA by language interface


Revisiting Facebook usage in MENA post-Arab Spring


Key points • Social-networking website Facebook’s popularity has shot up in the past several months in MENA on the back of the Arab Spring.


• There were an estimated 26.9 million MENA Facebook users at end-1Q11, with net additions reaching 30 per cent quarter-on-quarter.


• The majority of Facebook subscribers in the region use the English and French versions of the site; an estimated 10 per cent use the Arabic interface, which launched in 1Q09.


• The leading countries for Facebook in the region are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco; countries with civil unrest are experiencing rapid growth.


• Online activity on the social-networking platform has seen a shift from social interaction and dating to political activism.


Overview The number of Facebook users in the MENA region jumped from 20.8 million at end-2010 to 26.9 million by the end of 1Q11, repre- senting a 29.3 per cent increase quarter-on- quarter. The large number of net additions coincides with the Arab Spring, in which social media platforms, most notably Face- book and Twitter, had a role to play in the various popular uprisings against govern- ments. Annual net additions are estimated to be around 13.5 million. There are clear indications of a shift in media dissemination in the region, whether


religious or political. A recent Arab Social Media Report (ASMR) attributes the growth in Facebook in MENA to political purposes as opposed to mere social interaction between friends and family. Various political factions, in Egypt and Tunisia at least, have identi- fied Facebook as an important platform to disseminate their views and policies to the wider populous. Informa believes that a large proportion of the religious communities are also using the Facebook platform to air their views; religious content is increasingly moving online and being given maximum exposure in what can be aptly described as a battlefield for the winning of hearts and minds through rhetoric. Many clerics have also embraced microblogging space Twitter and frequently feature on Google’s YouTube.


Middle East Market Review | November 2011


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