Saudi Arabia: social network penetration Q3 2017

This statistic presents the social network penetration in Saudi Arabia. As of third quarter 2017, the most popular social network was mobile messenger WhatsApp with a 71 percent penetration rate. During the same period, 75 percent of the total population were active social media users.As of January 2017, approximately half the world population has access to the internet, while the number of worldwide social media users is expected to exceed 2 billion in 2016. Although North America is the leading region in terms of internet penetration, the Middle East is also increasingly connected, with an internet penetration above the world average – 60 percent of the total population. Notwithstanding this increase in access to internet services, largely supported by increasing access to mobile devices and decreasing costs of internet packages, international observers attract attention to censorship practices in various countries in the region. According to the 2016 Freedom House Index regarding the internet freedom in selected Middle East and North African countries, Syria and Iran jointly occupied the penultimate place in internet freedom with 87 index points. With a 72 index, Saudi Arabia received a “not free” status from the International organization.In Saudi Arabia, social media and technology is increasingly popular, mostly due to the low average age of the country’s population.

本统计数据显示了沙特阿拉伯的社交网络渗透率。截至2017年第三季度，最受欢迎的社交网络为移动通讯应用WhatsApp，渗透率高达71%。在同一时期，总人口的75%为活跃的社交媒体用户。至2017年1月，全球约有一半的人口能够接入互联网，预计到2016年全球社交媒体用户数量将超过20亿。尽管互联网接入率有所提升，这主要得益于移动设备的普及以及互联网套餐成本的降低，但国际观察者对区域内各国实行的审查制度引起了关注。根据2016年自由之家关于中东和北非部分国家互联网自由的指数报告，叙利亚和伊朗在互联网自由指数上并列倒数第二，指数为87分。沙特阿拉伯以72分的指数被评为‘不自由’状态。在沙特阿拉伯，社交媒体和技术日益受到欢迎，这主要归因于该国人口平均年龄偏低。