Saudi Arabia

Usage Patterns

Demographics

There were 11,400,000 internet users in Saudi Arabia (representing 43.6% of the population), according to data updated by Internet World Stats in March 2011.

Number of internet users in Saudi Arabia:
- 2007: 4,700,000 (17% of population)
- 2008: 6,380,000 (22.7%)
- 2009: 7,700,800 (27%)
- 2010: 7,762,000 (27.1%)

This was up by 5,600% since 2000. (Internet World Stats, June 2011)

Around 39% of the adult internet users in Saudi Arabia bought products/services and paid for them online in 2010, according to an Arab Advisors Group survey of Saudi Arabia's internet users.  The Arab Advisors Group conservatively estimates the number of these users to be around 3.1 million which is around 12% of the total population in Saudi Arabia. These e-commerce users have spent an estimated $3 billion on purchasing products/services online in 2010.

Electronics (58%) were the most popular products bought online, followed by software (50%). (Arab Advisors Group, February 2011)

Online travel market

Travel booking

Airline tickets booking and hotel reservations were the top services paid for online in Saudi Arabia in 2010, according to an Arab Advisors Group survey of Saudi Arabia's internet users.  Around 84% of e-commerce users paid for services online pay for airline tickets booking, while about 49% paid for hotel reservations. (Arab Advisors Group, February 2011)

Broadband access

The number of households with broadband connections in Saudi Arabia was estimated at around 1.97 million households by the end of 2010, according to the arab Advisors Group.

18.6% of the respondents of a Saudi Arabian internet users by the Arab Advisors Group who have a fixed broadband connection (WiMAX or ADSL) at home, shared it with their neighbours in 2010.  Moreover, the survey revealed that WiMAX operators had a 9.3% share of residential broadband internet accounts in the country.  (Arab Advisors Group, February 2011)

Mobile Devices

Mobile / Smartphones

47% of the respondents who use Smartphone applications in Saudi Arabia prefer to use them in the Arabic language compared to 8.2% in each of Jordan and the UAE, according to an Arab Advisors Group's survey of cellular users in Saudi Arabia.

Arab Advisors Group projects the Smartphone applications combined annual revenues in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan to grow from US$ 44 million in 2011 to US$ 210 million in 2015. (Arab Advisors Group, November 2011)

Smartphones constitute 54.6% of total cellular handsets in Saudi Arabia, according to an Arab Advisors Group's survey of cellular users in the UAE. (Arab Advisors Group, October 2011)