Instagram is twice as popular in the Middle East compared to Facebook. At the GITEX Technology Week in Dubai that ended yesterday, Etisalat, the Middle East’s leading telecom operator and Sandvine, a leading provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators, jointly shared this and other interesting insights on the Internet usage trends from the Middle East region. The data shared which is collected as part of Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Program highlights some unique traits found on select Middle Eastern networks especially on the usage of social sharing platforms.
According to Sandvine, Instagram that has around 200 million monthly active users leads the social networking in terms of traffic and consumes almost twice the bandwidth of Facebook on some mobile networks. Snapchat and WhatsApp are the two leading third-party messaging applications and combined can account for as much as 10% of total mobile traffic. YouTube is the single largest source of mobile traffic, accounting for over 25% of downstream traffic, according to Sandvine.
As one of the world's leading telecommunications operators, we are redefining broadband to focus on superior customer experience, smart cities and ICT leadership. Our partnership with Sandvine is part of our strategy to gain best-in-class business intelligence that ultimately allows us to successfully continue the path of innovation, improve competitiveness and maintain our position as market leaders.
- Esmaeel Alhammadi, SVP / Network Development of Etisalat
Subscribers in the Middle East are among the most enthusiastic consumers of social networking and messaging applications in the world. I am glad to share the latest Internet usage data at GITEX, and hope the information can be used to improve the quality of experience and variety of service tiers available to subscribers throughout the region.
- Chris Colman, SVP, Sales, EMEA
