As of March 2013, there are approximately 3.77 million active Twitter users in the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia leading at 1.9 million users. The total number of tweets from the region reached around 335.79 million in the same month, with Arabic tweets composing over 76% of the tweets. Mobile users are increasingly engaging with Twitter, with 60% of active users logging in via mobile devices at least once a month.

1. Twitter Research
Quantitative Analysis
Rania Alahmad

2. Agenda
Number of users in the Arab world
Used languages on twitter
1.
2.
3. Categories of the users (age groups,
education …etc.)
4.
5.
Number of Arabic tweets
Usage in the region and countries (numbers
of users, tweets ...etc.)
How many of the users enable geo-tagging?6.
7. Percentage of those accessing Twitter from
a mobile device vs. a desktop/laptop

3. Number of users in the Arab world
• This data is sourced from Arab Social Media
Report which provides an overview of Twitter
users in the Arab World. As such, the number
of users in all 22 Arab countries, in addition to
Iran, Palestine and Turkey, are collected
periodically (since January 2011 to date).
Some of below are the findings of the latest
report are in the following slides>>
Source: Arab Social Media Report

4. Number of users in the Arab world
• Total number of active Twitter users in the Arab world
reached 3,766,160 users as of March 2013.
The country with the highest number of active twitter
users is Saudi Arabia with 1.9 million users which
accounts for over half of all active twitter users in the
Arab region.
The estimated number of tweets produced by twitter
users in the Arab world in March 2013 was
335,792,000 tweets or 10,832,000 tweets per day.
Saudi Arabia alone, produced almost half (47%) of all
tweets in the Arab world, while Egypt produced 12%
and the UAE produced 11%.
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5. Twitter users per country /50K+

6. Twitter users per country /50K-

7. Twitter Penetration in the Arab region
Despite massive Twitter growth in Saudi Arabia, the
country does not have the highest Twitter penetration
rate in the region. Kuwait, a much smaller country, has
the highest penetration rate at 7.6%.
In general, GCC countries have the highest penetration
rates in the region. Jordan and Lebanon are the only
non-GCC countries with penetration rates above 1%.
Mauritania, Somalia, Yemen and Syria, Algeria and Iraq
remain the countries with the lowest Twitter
penetration rates

8. Twitter Penetration in the Arab region

9. Twitter Penetration in the Arab region

10. No. of Tweets in the Arab Region

11. No. of Tweets in the Arab Region

12. Twitter Penetration in the Arab region

13. Current Languages on Twitter
Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian,
Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch,
English (UK), Farsi/Persian, Filipino, Finnish,
French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi,
Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese,
Kannada, Korean, Kurdish (Central), Kurdish
(Northern), Latin, Latvian, Malay, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified
Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai,
Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu,
Vietnamese and Welsh.
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Source: Twitter http://bit.ly/YmZSXt

14. Categories of Users/Age
Groups/Global Data
The percentage of internet users who
Twitter has more than doubled since
• are on
November 2010, currently standing at 18%.
Internet users ages 18-29 are the most likely
to use Twitter.
According to http://pewinternet.org
% of internet users who use twitter are as
shown in the next slides:
•

15. Who uses Twitter

16. Age Groups on Twitter / Global Data

17. Number of Arabic tweets
• The estimated number of tweets produced by twitter users
in the Arab world in March 2013 was 335,792,000 tweets
or 10,832,000 tweets per day.
As for the language in which tweets are produced, Arab
tweets account for over 76% of all tweets in the Arab
world. This represents a growth of over 10% in the number
of Arabic tweets since March 2012.
The high number of new users in Saudi Arabia may have
contributed to this growth, where 90% of tweets are
produced in Arabic. Over 50% of tweets produced in other
countries which have seen strong growth of users, such as
Egypt the UAE, are also in Arabic. This growth also
contributed to the 5% drop in English tweets
•
Source: Arab Social Media Report

18. Percentage of Arabic
Language
Tweets per
Source: Arab Social Media Report

19. Percentage of Arabic Tweets per top
Tweeting Arabic Countries

20. Usage By Country
The country with the highest number of
active twitter users is Saudi Arabia with 1.9
million users which accounts for over half of
all active twitter users in the Arab region.
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21. Mobile Twitter Usage (Globally)
• Data in the coming slides were posted
Twitter blog by :
Taylor Schreiner
Co-Head Ad Research – Twitter
Monday, February 11, 2013
URL source: http://bit.ly/1hem1Gv
on
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22. Mobile Twitter Usage (Globally)
• Users who primarily
are 47% less likely to
than average Twitter
access Twitter via mobile
use Twitter on the desktop
users. They are also on
Twitter more often. They are 79% more likely to
be on Twitter several times a day than the
average Twitter user.
And these mobile users don’t just use phones to
access Twitter. 19% of primary mobile users say
that the top way they access Twitter is on a
tablet.
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23. Mobile Twitter Usage (Globally)
Sixty percent of the 200 million active users on
Twitter now log in via a mobile device at least
once every month. So how is a user that
accesses Twitter primarily on mobile different
from the average Twitter user

24. Mobile Twitter Usage (Globally)
Compete found that 18 to 34 year olds are
21% more likely to be logging into Twitter
primarily via a mobile device. Not a big
surprise since younger consumers tend to be
stronger adopters of mobile in general. We
found no statistically significant difference in
the gender breakdown of primary mobile
users of Twitter. It’s a pretty even split.
•

25. Primary mobile users engage with
Twitter throughout the day.
As mobile users go about their daily routines,
Twitter is a major part of nearly every aspect
of their lives. Primary mobile users are twice
as likely to use Twitter when they wake up and
twice as likely to use Twitter when going to
sleep.
•

26. Primary mobile users engage with
Twitter throughout the day.
Primary mobile Twitter users are also 181% more likely
to use Twitter during their commutes. Once they get to
work or school, they are 119% more likely keep using
Twitter. And this Twitter use extends into their social
time.
The study found that primarily mobile Twitter users are
127% more likely to use Twitter when they are out with
friends. They are over three times more likely to use
Twitter while shopping. Primary mobile users are also
202% more likely to use Twitter before and after
attending a movie than the average Twitter user.
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27. Primary mobile users engage with
Twitter throughout the day.

29. Mobile Twitter are more engaged with
brands.
• The average Twitter user follows five or more
brands. Users who primarily access Twitter on
mobile are 60% more likely to follow 11 or
more brands. They are also 53% more likely to
recall seeing an ad on Twitter than the
average Twitter user.

30. Twitter Geo Tagging
No clear data was shown to tell about those who allow geo
tagging on Twitter, whether globally or in the Arab world.
The information below was posted by lead author Chris
Weidemann, a graduate student in the Geographic
Information Science and Technology (GIST) online master’s
•
•
program at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, in an article http://bit.ly/IpIkJw
• Twitter has approximately 500 million active users who are
expected to tweet 72 billion times in 2013. Reports have
shown that about six percent of users opt-in to allow the
platform to broadcast their location with every tweet.

31. More Useful Data - GSMA
The GSM Association is an association of
mobile operators and related companies
devoted to supporting the standardising,
deployment and promotion of the GSM
mobile telephone system. The GSM
Association was formed in 1995.
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32. Mobile increasingly important to
get online
Analysys Masson's survey of mobile Internet users
in 2012–2013 in the Middle East and Africa (MEA)
also emphasized the importance – and impact – of
mobile broadband
http://bit.ly/11nnWz9
connections.
GSMAReport: http://bit.ly/11nnWz9
The GSMA noted that:
“Eleven countries in
the region rank
above the world
average in mobile
web browsing.”
“87% of surveyed mobile
Internet users use a mobile
phone as the main means to
connect to the Internet…”

33. Useful Links
https://www.mapbox.com
http://success.compete.com/mbd-mobile
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34. Research
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Rania Alahmad.
Social Media Manager.
Skype: rania.alahmad
Twitter: @TweetRania
Linkedin: jo.linkedin.com/in/raniaalahmad/
Email:
rania.alahmad@gmail.com
Alahmad.rania@gmail.com
Web: https://www.vizify.com/rania-alahmad