Abu Dhabi: The UAE is among the world’s leading countries on several digital life indices, the telecom authority said in a report on Tuesday.
In its report titled ‘Digital Lifestyle in the UAE’, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) said the UAE was ranked first globally in the use of social media, second globally and first in the Arab region in the use of the internet, and the ninth globally and first in the Arab region in ecommerce.
The report also noted that the UAE is the first country in the region to establish a digital government in 2001.
Key takeaways from the report
The UAE ranked:
- 1st globally in terms of mobile internet speed, with the average internet speed in the country being 134.48 megabytes per second (Mbps) while the global average is 30 Mbps.
- 13th globally in terms of home internet speed, with the average internet speed in the country reaching 124.7 Mbps compared to the global average of 63.46 Mbps.
- 2nd globally in terms of internet usage at a rate of 99 per cent compared to the global average of 62.5 per cent. The number of internet users in the UAE stood at 9.935 million.
- 12th globally in terms of time spent using mobile internet at 4 hours and 35 minutes, compared to the global average of three hours and 43 minutes. The country was also ranked 11th globally in terms of time spent using the internet.
- 10th globally in terms of average time spent using the internet across all devices, whether computers or mobile phones, with an average of eight hours and 36 minutes, compared to the global average of six hours and 58 minutes.
- 1st globally in terms of average time spent on social media per capita at 106 per cent, compared to the global average of 58.4 per cent. The UAE also surpassed in population engagement in social media the global rate by 200 per cent.
- Among the top 20 countries in terms of using digital videos as a source of learning at 50 per cent, and it was ranked among the top 10 countries in terms of sharing digital visual blogs at 27.6 per cent.
- Among the top 10 countries in e-gaming at 90 per cent. The country was ranked among the top 10 in the percentage of the population possessing cryptocurrencies at 11.4 per cent. The UAE was also ranked among the top 20 countries globally in terms of the percentage of the population undergoing telemedicine at a rate of 26.4 per cent.
- 9th globally in e-commerce, with the average annual per capita share of digital spending in the country being some $3,775, compared to the global average of $1,766.
- 14th globally in online weekly purchases, with 59 per cent of the population buying their needs online weekly, and it was ranked 13th in terms of weekly online purchases using mobile phones, with 32.4 per cent of the UAE population buying their needs by phone online weekly.
- Among the top 20 countries in terms of digital content, with 68.1 per cent of the population buying miscellaneous digital content on the internet, and it was ranked ninth globally in terms of weekly household food purchases, with 33.4 per cent of the UAE population buying their food needs online weekly.
- 12th globally in the time spent on social media at 4 hours and 35 minutes, and it was ranked 11th globally in terms of average social media platforms used. Moreover, the country was ranked among the top 20 in terms of using social media to search for brands at 48.8 per cent, and it was ranked 13th globally in the use of social media for business-related purposes at 28 per cent.
- 5th globally in the percentage of Facebook ads in the UAE at 82.5 per cent compared to 34.1 per cent globally, and fifth globally in the percentage of YouTube social ads, which reached 93.4 per cent compared to the global rate of 37.7 per cent.
- 6th globally in the percentage of Instagram ads, reaching 60.2 per cent compared to the global percentage of 23.9 per cent, and it was ranked second globally in the percentage of Tik Tok ads, reaching 81.3 per cent compared to the global rate of 15.9 per cent.
- 3rd globally in the percentage of LinkedIn ads, reaching 69 per cent compared to the global average of 14.6 per cent, as well as eight globally in the percentage of Snapchat ads, reaching 37.2 per cent compared to the global average of 9 per cent.
