A survey to investigate internet usage in the Middle East by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site, and YouGov, a research and consulting organisation, has revealed that the predominant reason for going online is to participate in social activities. Survey results showed that72% of Qatar respondents spend three hours or more online every day.
According to the survey results, every day40% of Qatar-based respondents claim to connect with friends via email, and44% of the same demographic connect with friends through social networking sites. Watching video clips and listening to music are also popular daily online activities and a very significant proportion of daily usage comes from online job hunting, with43% of Qatar respondents using the internet to seek employment.
The least popular daily online activities, in terms of the percentage of Qatar survey responses who have never accessed the facility, are downloading podcasts (42%); playing online games (41%); uploading video clips to video sharing websites (39%); participating in online courses (37%); uploading photos to a photo sharing website (28%).
“There is a definite trend across the survey region that leans towards using the internet for social purposes as well as for job hunting and career related purposes. This is very encouraging data and further bolsters Bayt.com’s foray into the career-centric social arena with our proprietary People platform which allows the region’s professionals to build an attractive public profile based on their completed CV and bolster that with badges and referrals,” commented Amer Zureikat, VP Sales at Bayt.com.
Results asking survey-takers to state all social networks to which they belong proved that Facebook is the site of choice; out of all of Qatar’s respondents, only6% claimed to not have a Facebook profile. ‘Other’ social networking sites (excluding Netlog (10%) and Hi5 (14%)) are ranked second with40%; Twitter earned28%, followed closely by LinkedIn (27%). Only5% claimed to have no social networking profiles at all.
Facebook usage is especially high, with69% logging onto the site on a daily basis, whereas only25% visit Twitter every day. The majority of Qatar’s users (a combined figure of54%) will spend between30 minutes –3 hours a day on Facebook, with another15% claiming to be signed into their account most times of the day. Twitter, on the other hand, has39% of users who log in for less than30 minutes a day, and39% who log in for between30 minutes – one hour.
In Qatar,48% of survey-takers claim to use social networking websites at their place of work; the main reason for not accessing such sites while in the office are due to the employee not having time (61%), rather than sites being blocked (17%).
Statistics across the region tend towards a lack in online purchases; Qatar is no exception. There is a slight tendency for more people to order airline tickets online more than anything else.
The trend across the region is for people to access political news online as opposed to business or lifestyle/leisure news; in Qatar,57% access political news, while52% access business news and46% access lifestyle/leisure news online.
In terms of the amount of time spent online every day,28% of Qatar respondents are online for less than two hours a day, while35% use the internet for between3-4 hours daily and22% claim to surfing the web for more than six hours every day.
When it comes to online access, Google Chrome is Qatar’s browser of choice, opted for by39% of respondents. Google reigns as the search engine of choice, with98% preferring to use it over its peers. Yahoo! is the most popular for email usage with67%, followed by Gmail (65%) and Hotmail (48%). As far as chat programmes are concerned, Skype is the most popular platform in Qatar, with64% of respondents using it; second is Yahoo! Messenger with54%, followed by Google talk! at38%.
In general, across all surveyed regions the method of choice for connecting to the internet is via personal computer (desktop, laptop and netbook), by a majority of96%. Personal computer ownership in Qatar is70%, with71% of respondents having fixed line broadband at home, and80% claiming to have WiFi access. Only24% of the region’s respondents use a mobile or smartphone to access web content, with5% opting to browse from their tablet computer. The most common place of access is at home (86%), followed by work (46%); mobile access and internet cafes come a close third, with21% and17% respectively.
The biggest concern to do with the internet put forward across the region is inappropriate content being easily accessible to children and youths. In Qatar, this is followed by (in order of biggest – lowest concern) internet addiction, the internet keeping people away from an active lifestyle, spam, social interaction becoming limited away from the internet, and lack of privacy.
Data for the Bayt.com Internet Usage in the Middle East survey was collected online from August1 -24,2011, with8,981 respondents (predominantly male –82% as opposed to18% women) aged18+, representing Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, KSA, Syria, Tunisia and the UAE.