Overview

This edition of the Arab Social Media Report continues to explore social media usage trends in the Arab Region with a focus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This section provides an update on Facebook usage trends and demographics in 2014 (Figure 17 and 18). As with previous editions, the numbers presented here were collected periodically for all Arab states between June 2013 and May 2014, including demographic information such as age and gender of users. The following represent the 6^th Arab Social Media Report’s key findings:

Facebook in the Arab World: A Snapshot

• The total number of Facebook users in the Arab world as of beginning of May 2014 is 81,302,064 up from 54,552,875 in May 2013.
• By May 2014 the country average for Facebook penetration in the Arab region was over 21.5% up from 15% in May 2013
• The percentage of female users has dipped slightly (from 33.4% in May 2013, to 31.75% in May 2014), after having fluctuated slightly between 33.4% and 34% in the past two years. This is still significantly lower than the global average of roughly 50%
• The percentage of youth (those under 30) has decreased slightly due to slow and steady uptake amongst users aged 30 and above. As of May 2014 the percentage of users between 15 and 29 years old was 67%.
• In terms of Facebook penetration rate in the region, Qatar now leads in the Arab region, followed by the UAE, with Jordan, Lebanon, and Bahrain rounding out the top five countries in terms of Facebook penetration.
• Egypt continues to constitute about a quarter of all Facebook users in the region (24%) and has gained the highest number of new Facebook users since January 2014, with an increase of over 2.6 million users in that time period.

Figure 17: Number of Total Facebook Users in the Arab Region between June 2010 and May 2014 (Top 10 Facebook populations)

Figure 18: Number of Remaining Facebook Users in the Arab Region between June 2010 and May 2014 (excl. Top 10 Facebook populations)

A comparison of Facebook uptake in the top ten countries in terms of Facebook penetration worldwide and Facebook uptake in the Arab World shows that users in Arab countries are still adopting Facebook at a higher rate than the world’s top ten. Even countries with smaller penetration rates - such as Syria, Libya, and Iraq - have seen more increase in their Facebook user penetration this year than Denmark, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Uptake in all Arab countries has increased since the last edition of this report was published with the exception of Somalia, which has seen a drop in Facebook users (Figures 19, 20 and 21).

Figure 19: New Facebook users in between January and May 2014 (% of population)

Figure 20: Number of New Facebook Users in the Arab Region between January and May 2014

Figure 21: Growth of Facebook users between Jan and May 2014 (% of population)

In the GCC countries Facebook usage has seen a healthy resurgence after the noticeable dip seen in last year’s report (Figure 22), most notably in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.