UAE population has taken to social media like fish to water. Emiratis, on average, spend 2.56 hours on social media daily. Much like in the rest of the world, social media has become one of the most essential parts of daily internet usage in the UAE. It has given a voice to the ignored and served as a melting pot of ideas of all kinds.
Social Media Users in UAE
According to the latest statistics, a whopping 99.06% of the UAE population remain active on social media. This means that in 2019, an eyeball popping 9.52 million people come online on social media almost every day out of a population of 9.61 million people. In 2019, UAE saw a 1.1% annual growth in mobile social users. The usage of social media recorded a 1.5% increase from the previous year.
Mobile social media usage has been booming in the country. 8.8 million users access social media through their mobile devices. That is 91.57% of the population of the country. The 2019 usage statistics show that the number of mobile social media users in the country recorded a 1.2% growth with more than 219,000 new users added last year. Falling smartphone costs and easy availability of cutting edge technology are the major reasons for this boom.
Popular Social Media Platforms in the UAE
UAE Facebook & YouTube Users 2019
Facebook was the most popular social media platform in 2018. But in 2019, Youtube Users have grown to the same level as the Facebook platform. Almost 82% of the UAE’s population has profiles on Facebook while YouTube’s penetration also stands at 82%.
Facebook has found favor among the commercial entities, the political class as well as the masses of the country. The latest statistics for 2019 show that, with 7.88 million users, Facebook is poised to remain a potent force for many years to come. Several popular brands use their Facebook profiles to reach out to fans and provide them unique offers and messages.
YouTube platform with 7.88 million users, faces stiff competition from Instagram. A very large percentage of Instagram’s 5.86 million users are young people, especially teenagers.
A few other social media platforms that are popular in the UAE are Twitter (48% penetration), LinkedIn (43% penetration), Pinterest (25% penetration) and Tumblr (16% penetration).
Popular Social Networks in UAE
| Social Network Platforms | Active Users |
| 7.88 million | |
| YouTube | 7.88 million |
| 5.86 million | |
| 4.61 million | |
| 4.13 million | |
| 2.40 million | |
| Tumblr | 1.54 million |
Social Media Chat Apps
Predictably WhatsApp is the most popular chat app in the UAE. WhatsApp has 7.88 million users in the UAE, which is 82% of the country’s total population. FB Messenger, with 6.05 million users and 63% penetration among the UAE population, is second. Despite frequent disruptions in service, Skype remains third in popularity with 4.32 million users, while Snapchat, which is really popular among teenagers, has 3.08 million users. Fifth in the list of 2019 social media chat apps is WeChat with 2.21 million users.
Popular Messenger Apps in UAE
| Popular Messenger Apps | Active Users |
| 7.88 million | |
| FB Messenger | 6.05 million |
| Skype | 4.32 million |
| SnapChat | 3.08 million |
| 2.21 million |
The Future of Social Media in the UAE
From being a force for connecting people, social media has now evolved into a major advertising medium for brands to connect with their customers. Social groups play a massive role in connecting people with similar interests and they can also serve to motivate people to improve themselves. Facebook communities are also playing increasing roles in ever-transforming global geopolitics.
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