Digital QATAR - The Hotspot for Technology | Just another Digital Qatar Network site

Featured Stories

MENA Digital Digest: 15 things you need to know from the last 3 months

25th February
Keeping Pace with Changes in Digital Marketing

18th February
3D Printing… A Technology You Will See More Of

5th February
Infographic: Understanding Social Media in the Middle East

26th January
Social Media in the Middle East: The Story of 2013

20th January

25 Feb

MENA Digital Digest: 15 things you need to know from the last 3 months

New Year. New start. Our latest quarterly round-up of regional and global tech developments is back with a whole new look and feel. You can see the full presentation below, or read on for some of the key stories. (And do let us know what you think of the new look, by emailing us socialimpact@ict.gov.qa or send us a Tweet @ictqatar)

Social Media

1. Facebook has published data related to the Middle East and North Africa region for the first time. This shows that 28 million log on daily; with over 50% (15 million) of daily users doing so via a mobile device. Over the course of a month, 33 million access their accounts each month via a phone or tablet.

2. MENA is home to the most active country in the world on Twitter. Can you guess who it is? Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, all of the Top 5 countries – in terms of user penetration – are non-English speaking. Mashable has a nice chart showing who the other countries are, and where the leading English language countries sit in this list.

3. Business orientated social network LinkedIn has published some key data about its users in MENA. This reveals that 2 in 5 LinkedIn members in MENA hold Manager positions or above. And continuing the mobile access theme we saw with Facebook, 36% access the site via mobile. This infographic from Tfour.me digs deeper.

Technology

4. Two GCC countries, Qatar & Bahrain, are in the Top 12 countries in the world for the highest percentage of individuals using the Internet, according to the Broadband Commission. In the Top 10, only two countries are outside of Europe. Qatar is one. The other? You might be surprised that to know that it’s New Zealand.

5. Ericsson reported that there are now 354 million mobile subscriptions in MENA. 6 million were new subscriptions in Q3 2013, with 4 million of these in Egypt.

6. Which mobile phone manufacturer dominates the Middle East? Nokia makes up 45.2% of all phones in MENA.

7. In MENA two phones in five are smartphones. Smartphone volumes are up 16.4% in Q2 2013 compared to Q2 2012 reports the research firm IDC.

8. The fabulously named Netbiscuits note the UAE is home to some of the heaviest mobile web users in the world. 37% are on the mobile web for 6+ hours a day.

9. The Arab World’s first Assistive Technology Portal was launched by Mada. It offers tools and solutions for people with disabilities; with content in Arabic and English.

Digital Content

10. New stats note that Arabic is now the 8th most used language on the web.

11. Music, games and video are the most downloaded types of Arabic content.

12. Digital advertising in MENA is expected to grow +37% a year. Currently a $300 million p.a. business, online it is expected to be worth $1 billion p.a. in MENA by 2017.

13. Massive open online courses (MOOC) are seen by some as a game changer for education. Edraak is the first such Arabic platform for the Middle East. It part of edX, a virtual education platform founded by Harvard and MIT.

14. Nearly a third (30%) of Egyptian adults play online games, with over one in five households (21.9%) owning gaming consoles.

15. With 300m daily views, YouTube plans to add new local domains for Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.

Filed Under: Digital Digest, Featured

Tags: , arabic, arabic digital content, Arabic Language, assistive technology, Bahrain, Broadband Commission, digital advertising, Digital Content, Digital Digest, Edraak, edX, egypt, Ericsson, facebook, gaming, GCC, IDC, Kuwait, linkedin, mada, mashable, MENA, middle east, Middle East and North Africa, mobile, Nokia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, smartphones, Social Impact, tablet, Technology, Tfour.me, twitter, UAE, YouTube

22 Feb

0 Comments

Facebook or Twitter, which social network do Qataris use more?

by Shahd Dauleh

Nearly 45% of Qatar’s entire population visit a social media website at least once every day, according to research by Northwestern University in qatar. On average, people in Qatar spend over 2 hours a day on social media websites, with young people particularly active spending an average of 4 hours/day on these channels.

A few weeks ago, we published our annual roundup of social media developments across the Middle East. Alongside this, we have prepared a second report, with a more local flavor, looking only at the story of social media in Qatar. Feel free to check out the report below, or keep reading for a summary of the key points.

High Connectivity

Qatar is among the world’s most Internet connected countries, with individual Internet penetration levels reaching 88% – highest in the Middle East.

But what social networks do the residents of Qatar visit most? Well, like elsewhere in the region, the social media site with the largest pool of users is Facebook. 88% of those social networking in Qatar are on Facebook. The numbers shrink in half when compared to the second-most-used social network, Twitter – 43%. Instagram follows at 17%, making it the third most used social network in the country.

Looking at this data from a high level makes Facebook seem like it truly dominates this scene. However, when looking at the numbers closer, the story can change.

For example, when looking at how youth use social media we find that the gap between Facebook and Twitter shrinks significantly. 79% of young adults in Qatar cite using Facebook regularly, while 57% report using Twitter just as often. Young adults also enjoy using Instagram, with 34% of them saying they do on a regular basis, which is a high jump from the overall number mentioned above.

When breaking down the population by nationality, the story of social media gets even more interesting.

Facebook is the most used social network by Arab, Western and Asian expats living in Qatar, however, not the most used by Qataris. In fact, where 65% of Qatari social networkers are on Facebook, 65% of them are equally on Twitter. Facebook in this instance is no longer a victor, but is in tie.

Instagram follows not too far behind, with 48% of Qatari social networkers using it. Qataris use Instagram disproportionately more than any other nationality group in the country. Only 12% of Arab Expats report using Instagram regularly, and 5% and 8% of Asian and Westerner expats respectively.

Personally, I tend to be most active on Facebook. Which social network do you use the most and why?

Filed Under: Social Media

Tags: , arab, arab world, doha, facebook, google, Instagram, MENA, middle east, qatar, qatari, Social Media, social network, social networking, twitter

18 Feb

0 Comments

Keeping Pace with Changes in Digital Marketing

by Julia Astashkina

www.wransade.qa
Local viral marketing campaign – in action – #DoYourPart.

In the digital space, endless end user wishes for the new are served by a never-ending stream of innovations, and it is a good thing, although keeping up with the latest and greatest is sometimes a challenge. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research and the Business Marketing Association found that 34% of B2B marketing executives admitted that they were “overwhelmed” by the rate of change driven by digital innovation in marketing. 97% of these executives said they anticipated the pace of change was only going to accelerate in the future.

The early years of online marketing focused on rapid growth – we all were into counting numbers. This was true for social media, email lists, and web analytics regardless whether it was a B2C or B2B business. But as digital platforms mature, the focus is shifting more towards lead generation and creating quality content that is worth sharing with others.

ictQATAR is not an exception – our own digital platforms have grown over the years – our Facebook account, for example, today boasts more than 20,000 followers, and we started with just a few hundred in 2010. But as has happened elsewhere we are fine tuning our online models to stay on top of people’s minds. Here are a few strategies that we are using in this year:

1. Finding and nurturing brand influencers. Your customers don’t trust advertising, they trust their peers and influencers. Finding and engaging influencers has become one of the key marketing tactics, and we will continue blending it with SEO, content marketing, and social media campaigns. This principle was championed in a recent traffic safety campaign, WranSade, meaning “wrong side” in Arabic, supported by ictQATAR. The campaign went viral over just a few weeks, with no paid advertising, solely relying on advocacy of a small group of local movers and shakers.

2. Growing in context native advertising. With the rise of search, social, and mobile, as marketers we have endless choices when it comes to reaching target markets. A survey by Hexagram and Spada found that 62% of publishers use native advertising currently, and another 20% say they will begin to offer it within the next year. A recent example of a native advertising strategy in action is an ictQATAR’s social media campaign promoting SafeSpace, a website dedicated to keeping kids safe online.

SafeSpace Social Media Campaign

3. Getting deeper into marketing automation. We are leveraging online display as a part of the overall marketing automation processes. Marketing automation is great for building evergreen lead nurturing programs, mostly around e-mail communications. In a typical scenario, 90% of your typical site visitors remain anonymous, and 70% of your known contacts don’t open promotional emails, so you can’t reach them through their inboxes. Integrating and synchronizing online display as a core part of the marketing automation effectively addresses this problem and allows moving contacts through the marketing funnel faster.

There are many more marketing trends to cover, and hopefully in 2014 we’ll see more localized examples of marketing innovations. Over to you. What are your latest experiments using the latest in digital?

Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Featured, ictQATAR, Mobile Technology, Social Media, Technology, User Experience

Tags: , B2B, B2B marketing, brand advocates, cyber safety, digital marketing, digital strategy, julia astashkina, Social Media, traffic safety Qatar, WranSade

05 Feb

0 Comments

3D Printing… A Technology You Will See More Of

by شهد دولة

3D printers entered the markets in 2013, and seems like they will continue to spread massively in 2014. Technology research leaders, Gartner, predict worldwide shipping of 3D printers will grow at a rate of 75% in 2014, landing this kind of technology a spot in our top five predictions for this year. Check out the other four here:

3D printers come in all types, shapes and forms. They can be also used to accomplish a variety of tasks at personal and industrial levels. For example, there are small printing machines that can be used domestically to manufacture all sorts of small-scale products that can be used around the home. Watch the video below to see how this printer makes hooks and other home goods using plastic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNxm5sWJIk

If you think that printer in the video above was small and portable, check out this 3D printer, “Doodle Pen” that does just as the name implies; it lets you draw in 3D! The pen uses special plastic sticks and enables people to draw real-life things directly into existence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQWyhezIze4

There are weirder 3D printers out there too. A company in Japan, for example, uses a 3D printer to make life-size doll figures of its customers. They first make a customer sit down and take high resolution pictures from all angles, they then print those onto dolls. Check out this image from one of their products:

This year, 3D printers will also enter the world of medicine. The first 3D printed liver will be produced early 2014, which will be a great advancement in both technology and medicine combined. Read more about that here.

So, do you think 2014 will be the year you buy your first 3D printer?

Filed Under: Featured, Technology

Tags: , 2013, 2014, 3D printed liver, 3d printer, 3d technology, Doodle Pen, japan, printers, special edition, tech, Technology

26 Jan

0 Comments

Infographic: Understanding Social Media in the Middle East

by Damian Radcliffe

Last week we published our 2013 round-up of Social Media in the Middle East, in a set of slides which pulled together some of the key data points and developments that we had seen across MENA’s social scene over the past 12 months.

But because Digital Qatar readers are busy people, we realize that not everyone will have time to read our full set of slides.

If you fall into that camp, then don’t worry; because today we’ve produced (just for you) an infographic showcasing the key take up and usage data.

Our infographic is essential for anyone who wants to know answers to key questions like:

How many Facebook users there are in the Middle East?
Where is Arabic usage of Facebook most popular?
Is consumption via mobile devices a big deal?
How many tweets does MENA produce each day?
Is YouTube really a big deal?
Do people in the Arab World use LinkedIn?

This is the first time we’ve shared our analysis in this way, so do let us know your feedback and if this works for you. If it does, expect to see more infographics from us in the future.