UAE is in top 10 worldwide

The UAE is in the top 10 countries worldwide for Facebook users as a percentage of internet users. It is the only country in the Middle East in the top 10.

While the country average for Facebook user penetration in the Arab region is 6.77 per cent, the UAE has the highest penetration rate with more than 45 per cent of the population having Facebook accounts.

These figures have been released by the Dubai School of Government in the inaugural Arab Social Media Report — the first in a quarterly series of reports focusing on usage trends of online social networking across the Arab region.

It aims to gain a better understanding of the impact of social media on the development and growth in the region, by exploring a number of key areas.

The UAE acquired 17.2 per cent new users as a percentage of its population in 2010 — the second-highest figure of regional countries.

In terms of internet freedom, the UAE has the highest disparity with 45.38 per cent Facebook penetration and a score of six on an Internet Freedom Rank (one is pervasive filtering, 20 is no evidence of filtering).

The report concludes that the UAE is among countries with either very high or very low Facebook penetration where Digital Access Index and income seem to be factors in uptake: the top three Arab countries in terms of Facebook penetration (UAE, Qatar and Bahrain) all have high DAI rankings and high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

- The report is available at: www.ArabSocialMediaReport.com