Social media use in the Middle East has reached its peak, especially in countries such as the UAE. which recorded the highest social media penetration ever estimated at 99% in 2018. Saudi Arabia also recorded the highest year-over-year growth in the number of social media users with a rate of 32%. All these indicators and more reflect the vital role of social media in Middle Eastern life.

Social media marketing has grown to become an essential part of every firm’s strategy. In order to expand its reach and enhance its products and services.

Cast a quick glance at the state of social media use across the MENA region:

Social Media Usage and Statistics in KSA, UAE, and Egypt:

• Egypt has the highest number of Facebook active users (35m), followed by KSA (11m), and then UAE (8.5m).
• KSA has the highest number of Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat active users (12m, 11M, and 14M, respectively).
• Males dominate the use of all social media platforms in the three surveyed countries. Except in the KSA where Snapchat female active users are more than males (6.5m versus 5.5m).

A Graph Show the Demographics of Instagram Users and Twitter Users in KSA 2018

Now, it’s the time for social media usage across some industries within the MENA region:

Social Media Insights for Fintech Companies in the Middle East:

• There are more than 53K of active people who engaged with Fintech companies’ social accounts on social media. With a total of 30.98% engagement rate.
• KSA has the highest Fintech buzz on social media estimated at 25.67%, higher than the USA (14.26%).
• Twitter is the most used platform in the Fintech industry with a rate of 79.68%.
• The majority of users in Egypt, Jordan, and KSA used Arabic to publish their content and tweets about Fintech services. Meanwhile, 81% of activities in the UAE were published in English.

With Adobe Audience Manager, you can get a complete view of your audience by combining all your data sources in one place.

Social Media Insights for Automotive Companies in the Middle East:

• 222,160K is the number of active people engaged with automotive social media accounts in the Middle East, with a total of 37% engagement rate.
• Turkey had the majority of content published in English with a rate of 91.6%, followed by Egypt (72.8%), and UAE (63.6%).
• Instagram is the main social media platform used by the automotive industry in the Middle East with a rate of 89.85%.

Related: you can integrate data from anywhere and understand your customers on a whole new level with Adobe Analytics.

Social Media Insights for E-commerce Companies in the Middle East:

• There are almost 509K of active people in the Middle East who engaged with e-commerce companies’ social accounts on social media with a total of 24.35% engagement rate.
• Business accounts hold the majority of e-commerce content across all middle east countries. Highest participation is in UAE (67%), Egypt (55%) and KSA (54%).
• Arabic dominated the content of all countries, except the UAE which had 59% of its e-commerce content published in English.
• Instagram is the most used social media platform by the e-commerce industry in the Middle East with a rate of 77%.

A Graph Shows the Top Social Media Platforms Used by E-Commerce Industry in the Middle East in 2018

Don’t Forget to Check: The 2019 State of Social Media in the MENA Region

Methodology:

Data in this report is based on in-depth analytics for social media across 8 industries within the MENA region. (Fintech, e-commerce, automotive, media, telecommunication, banking, finance, and ride-hailing).

The analysis is based on companies’ social accounts, plus Queries that crawled all online posts and activities related to the industry surveyed in the middle east.