Internet penetration among Saudi nationals is “around 93 percent” but traditional TV viewership is down 16 percent, an indication of the continued rise of online media viewership and the rise of apps in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the Saudi Gazette.
“The increase in data use is also driven by the use of over-the-top (OTT) apps such as WhatsApp and Skype as well as from the rapidly growing use of YouTube and other social media apps including Twitter and Snapchat – although the latter has slowed recently due to privacy concerns,” the Saudi Gazette reported, based on an interview the newspaper did with William Saad, Chief Operating Officer of I.H.S Towers.
Traditional media viewership is down in Saudi Arabia.
An October 2015 report by the Online Project found that life for many Saudis “is an ecosystem of apps, with Twitter being at the top. The country’s market differs from others by being the most active on social, having the highest penetration of the micro blog. Saudi Arabia accounts for 40% of Twitter users in the Arab region, with 5.4 million users tweeting more than 210 million tweets per month.”
Following the announcement of the government’s ‘Vision 2030’ plan, tens of thousands of young Saudis took to social media to debate plans to reform the kingdom’s oil-reliant economy last month marking a shift in how Saudi Arabia’s rulers interact with their citizens. The announcement strategy used Twitter alongside traditional media to build anticipation and introduce hashtags.
Some 190,000 Twitter users in Saudi Arabia actively took part in the ensuing debate over Vision 2030, generating more than 860,000 messages according to France-based social media monitor Semiocast, as reported by Reuters.
