The number of Facebook users will increase 6.6% to 217.0 million in 2019, fueled by growth in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Facebook enjoys very high penetration among social network users in many of the countries in the Middle East and Africa we track, but Saudi Arabia differs. Usage Trends Show Strength in Middle East and Africa.

According to the annual report from the Northwestern University in Qatar and The Harris Poll in conjunction with the Pan Arab Research Center (PARC), 51% of adults in the UAE, 41% in Qatar and 34% of those in Saudi Arabia used Snapchat daily as of October 2018, compared with 0% uptake in Egypt. In Saudi Arabia, Snapchat’s fan base includes some useful allies.

(Note: As in several other countries, including Colombia and Saudi Arabia, the sample surveyed by GlobalWebIndex in South Africa isn’t entirely representative of the larger national population. Instead it’s weighted toward urban [38.0%] and suburban [52.7%] internet users, and also skews younger.

As in Saudi Arabia, the UAE sample population is largely composed of early adopters—meaning substantial uptake of digital media. Males and city dwellers predominated among the internet users ages 16 to 64 polled by GlobalWebIndex in H1 2019 (see note below). Given those skews, it’s not surprising to find high levels of engagement with digital devices and activities.

The more developed countries within the Gulf Cooperation Council—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—are likely to have much stronger Instagram usage rates than those in northern and particularly sub-Saharan Africa. This same trend is reflected across nearly every digital and social media trend in the region.