Mideast Twitter frenzy: 3,993 tweets a minute

Social media is certainly making its mark in the Arab world, with mind boggling statistics revealing that 173 million tweets were sent out onto the online platform from this region alone since March 2012.

That’s 3,993 tweets per minute on the popular microblogging site.

The growth of social media and its impact on creating a knowledge based society was the topic of discuss at the ongoing Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai, where representatives from organisations such as Twitter, Google and Microsoft revealed the economical and cultural impact of this growing trend.

Charbel Fakhoury, VP Sales, Marketing and Services, MEA Microsoft Corporation quantified the growth of the social platform, saying: “There is opportunity that goes beyond politics, social and cultural impact.

“Today, the annual value unlocked through the social network ranges between $900 billion to $1.3 trillion. It is what you can now call a social economy.”

Of the emerging trends, Fakhoury mentioned that businesses and brands were now effectively tapping into this goldmine through digital media campaigns.

“According to visible trends, 46 per cent of purchasing decisions today are based on reviews that people garner over the social network,” he said.

Google Gulf Regional Manager, Mohammed Mourad, gave weight to the trend, saying: “There are studies now that indicate if efficiently harnessed, social media can directly benefit a country’s annual GDP by three to four per cent.”

The impact of Arabs

Numbers revealed indicate that 36 per cent of social platform users in the Arab world are females, with the average age across both genders ranging between 25 and 45 years.

Twitter Inc’s Senior Localisation Project Manager, Kaveh Gharib explained further: “Arabic is the fastest growing language on Twitter. To put it into perspective, we have 400m tweets daily, with 17m of them in the Arabic language.

“Since our launch, active Arab users on our platform have tripled.”

Such is the impact of Arabs that Gharib revealed the corporation is now steadfastly working on a platform to allow users to tweet in Arabic, while working to even create the trends list in Arabic for users.

“The goal is to reach a stage whereby every new feature launched on Twitter will also be launched in Arabic,” he added.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

ALSO READ:

Apple patents BlackBerry BBM-like instant messaging system for iPhone 6

Samsung Galaxy S3 prices crash in UAE to Dh1,539

Samsung S4 Mini images leaked

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.