facebook usage in the middle east & north africa - july 2011

Facebook Usage in the

Middle East & North Africa

July 2011

By: Abbas Alidina (@AbbasAlidina)

with Murtaza Amarsi (@Murtaza Amarsi)

About Us

The MENA Facebook Digest analyses the usage of Facebook in the Middle East & North Africa

(MENA). The key findings of this report are:

• The MENA region is home to almost a 10th of the world’s Facebook users. Currently, the region

has over 58 Million Facebook users, representing a market penetration of 16.8%.

• Over the last month, more than 2.3 Million people in MENA joined Facebook. This represents a

one-month growth rate of 4.1%.

• While the majority of MENA users browse Facebook in English, more than 10.1 Million users

browse in Arabic, representing 17.3% of the overall MENA Facebook user base.

• Facebook usage in MENA is dominated by Males. 62.9% of users are Males and 35.4% of users

are Females

• More than 37.7 Million Facebook users in MENA are between the ages of 18 and 34.

• 81.8% of the overall MENA Facebook user base is 18 years of age or older.

1.0 Summary

About Us2.0 Countries

Usage By Country

About Us

Country Population Facebook Users Facebook Penetration

Algeria 36,300,000 2,293,560 6.3%

Bahrain 1,262,000 287,020 22.7%

Djibouti 889,000 58,700 6.6%

Egypt 80,473,000 7,855,820 9.8%

Iraq 31,672,000 860,400 2.7%

Jordan 6,187,000 1,675,780 27.1%

Kuwait 2,737,000 822,640 30.1%

Lebanon 4,228,000 1,201,820 28.4%

Libya 6,191,000 52,860 0.9%

Morocco 32,152,000 3,596,320 11.2%

Oman 2,694,094 285,080 10.6%

Palestine 3,935,249 599,520 15.2%

Qatar 1,696,563 245,580 14.5%

Saudi Arabia 27,136,977 4,034,740 14.9%

Tunisia 10,549,100 2,602,640 24.7%

Turkey 73,722,988 29,459,200 40.0%

United Arab Emirates 4,599,000 2,340,880 50.9%

Yemen 22,492,035 328,380 1.5%

Totals 348,917,006 58,600,940 16.8%

2.0 Countries

2.1 Users and Penetration by Country

Facebook Market Penetration = (Facebook Users) / (Population)

About Us

2.2 Number of Facebook Users by Country

2.0 Countries

0 5,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000 25,000,000 30,000,000 35,000,000

Yemen

United Arab Emirates

Turkey

Tunisia

Saudi Arabia

Qatar

Palestine

Oman

Morocco

Libya

Lebanon

Kuwait

Jordan

Iraq

Egypt

Djibouti

Bahrain

Algeria

Number of Facebook Users

About Us

2.3 Facebook User Distribution by Country

2.0 Countries

Yemen

0.6%United Arab Emirates

4.0%

Turkey

50.3%

Tunisia

4.4%

Saudi Arabia

6.9%

Qatar

0.4%

Palestine

1.0%

Oman

0.5%

Morocco

6.1%

Libya

0.1%

Lebanon

2.1%

Kuwait

1.4%

Jordan

2.9%

Iraq

1.5%

Egypt

13.4%

Djibouti

0.1%

Bahrain

0.5%

Algeria

3.9%

About Us

2.4 Facebook Market Penetration by Country

2.0 Countries

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%

Yemen


Turkey

Tunisia

Saudi Arabia

Qatar

Palestine

Oman

Morocco

Libya

Lebanon

Kuwait

Jordan

Iraq

Egypt

Djibouti

Bahrain

Algeria

Facebook Market Penetration

About Us

Growth By Country

3.0 Growth by Country

About Us

Country 1 Month Growth 1 Month % Growth

Algeria 148,820 6.9%

Bahrain 5,500 2.0%

Djibouti 3,360 6.1%

Egypt 472,740 6.4%

Iraq 71,240 9.0%

Jordan 99,440 6.3%

Kuwait 87,220 11.9%

Lebanon -26,080 -2.1%

Libya 6,980 15.2%

Morocco 120,000 3.5%

Oman 23,920 9.2%

Palestine 14,500 2.5%

Qatar -66,280 -21.3%

Saudi Arabia 194,240 5.1%

Tunisia 89,880 3.6%

Turkey 1,003,380 3.5%

United Arab Emirates 102,999 4.6%

Yemen -31,020 -8.6%

Totals 2,320,839 4.1%


3.1 Facebook Absolute Growth and % Growth by Country (1 Month)

About Us

3.2 Facebook Growth by Country (1 Month)


-200,000 0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000

Yemen


Turkey

Tunisia

Saudi Arabia

Qatar

Palestine

Oman

Morocco

Libya

Lebanon

Kuwait

Jordan

Iraq

Egypt

Djibouti

Bahrain

Algeria

1 Month Growth

About Us

3.3 Facebook % Growth by Country (1 Month)


-25.0% -20.0% -15.0% -10.0% -5.0% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0%

Yemen


Turkey

Tunisia

Saudi Arabia

Qatar

Palestine

Oman

Morocco

Libya

Lebanon

Kuwait

Jordan

Iraq

Egypt

Djibouti

Bahrain

Algeria

1 Month % Growth

About Us

Usage by

Gender, Language and Age

4.0 Usage by Gender, Language, Age

About Us4.0 Usage by Gender

4.1 Facebook Users by Gender

3.7%

35.6%

60.7%

36,835,800

20,769,900

995,240

62.9%

35.4%

1.7%

Male Female Unspecified


4.2 Facebook Users by Gender – Absolute Growth (1 Month)

1,495,239

851,020

-25,420

-200,000

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000



4.3 Facebook Users by Gender - % Growth (1 Month)

3.7%

35.6%

60.7%

4.2% 4.3%

-2.5%

-3.0%

-2.0%

-1.0%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%


About Us5.0 Usage by Language

5.1 Facebook Users by Language

11,891,880

7,258,680

10,128,560

76,300 134,540 66,080 63,300 11,260 1,820

English French Arabic Russian German Italian Spanish Swedish Hindi


5.2 Facebook Users by Language – Absolute Growth (1 Month)

384,359

637,520

287,960

6,600 8,280

-160

6,700 880 3,720

-100,000

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

English Arabic French Spanish Russian Hindi German Swedish Italian


5.3 Facebook Users by Language - % Growth (1 Month)

3.3%

6.7%

4.1%

11.6%12.2%

-8.1%

5.2%

8.5%

6.0%

-10.0%

-5.0%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

English Arabic French Spanish Russian Hindi German Swedish Italian

10,677,300

22,829,080

14,950,460

6,390,720

2,293,780

643,120 816,480

0-17 18-25 26-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

About Us6.0 Usage by Age

6.1 Facebook Users by Age

425,260

795,340

647,920

241,719

106,580

27,540

76,480

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

0-17 18-25 26-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

About Us

6.2 Facebook Users by Age – Absolute Growth (1 Month)

6.0 Usage by Age

4.1%

3.6%

4.5%

3.9%

4.9%

4.5%

10.3%

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

0-17 18-25 26-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

About Us

6.3 Facebook Users by Age - % Growth (1 Month)

6.0 Usage by Age

About Us7.0 Notes and Assumptions

• While there is no standard definition outlining the countries included in the Middle East &

North Africa (MENA), this report is based on the definitions provided by Wikipedia.

• Middle East: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

• North Africa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Africa

• Facebook user statistics are obtained directly from Facebook.

• Facebook Statistics: http://www.facebook.com/advertising

• Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Syria are excluded from this study because Facebook does not

provide user statistics for these countries.

• All country population estimates are obtained from Wikipedia.

• List of countries by population:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

• All population and Facebook user statistics are rounded to the nearest thousand.

About Us8.0 Questions and Comments

Abbas Alidina

Founder & Director

Logicks.com

[email protected]

www.twitter.com/AbbasAlidina

Thanks for reading. Please direct any question, comments or inquiries to:

facebook usage in the middle east & north africa - july 2011

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