If you are an international digital marketer with experience targeting the Middle Eastern and African market, then you will know that you cannot treat the vast region of “the Middle East and Africa” as one singular entity.
As well as the obvious differences in language between countries, there are also significant variations between countries’ digital landscapes that you need to take into account when creating your digital marketing strategies.
Each strategy must be tailored to each individual market, to ensure you are reaching each audience in the right ways and on the right platforms where they are present online.
That is why I have created the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Middle East and Africa, an in-depth report that goes country by country, providing an overview of the most important points all Middle Eastern and African digital marketers should know in 2024.
This blog post will go through some of those key points. Let’s dive into it!
1. Internet penetration in the Middle East and Africa in 2024
Internet penetration rates differ widely across the Middle East and Africa. Whilst there are some countries with extremely high levels of internet penetration, there are others where the market is still developing and where it is still important to include offline methods as part of your marketing strategy.
The data in the report actually reveals a gap between the Middle East and Africa when it comes to internet penetration, with the highest internet penetration rates all being seen in the Middle East and the lowest internet penetration rates all being seen in Africa.
The countries with the highest internet penetration rates in the report are:
- United Arab Emirates: 116.6% internet penetration rate
- Qatar: 114.9% internet penetration rate
- Israel: 86.7% internet penetration rate
Curiously, the figures suggest there are more internet users in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar than residents, putting the internet penetration rate in both countries at over 100%. This statistical anomaly can be explained by the presence of a large number of unauthorised migrants in both countries who do not appear in the official population figures but are nevertheless counted as internet users.
Meanwhile, the countries with the lowest internet penetration rates in the report are:
- Egypt: 48.6% internet penetration rate
- South Africa: 63.2% internet penetration rate
- Morocco: 79.1% internet penetration rate
Before creating a marketing strategy for a new market, make sure you check the internet penetration rate. This will give you a better idea of how important (or not) offline mediums will be as part of your overall marketing efforts.
2. E-commerce in the Middle East and Africa in 2024
The e-commerce landscape also looks a little different across the Middle East and Africa, with different e-commerce platforms being more popular in different countries:
- Amazon: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Egypt, Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
- Haraj: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Saudi Arabia.
- Takealot: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in South Africa.
- Trendyol: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Türkiye.
- Yad2: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Israel.
If you are planning on selling your products via e-commerce platforms in the Middle East and Africa, make sure you focus your efforts on the right platform for the country you are targeting. By targeting the local platforms where your audience is actively looking to buy products like yours, you will get the biggest return-on-investment.
3. Social media in the Middle East and Africa in 2024
And last but certainly not least, let’s look at the social media and messaging landscape in the Middle East and Africa. Social media is very popular amongst internet users in this region, making it an important part of your digital marketing strategy.
As a general trend, I saw the following platforms commonly being the top five most popular across most Middle Eastern and African countries:
- Facebook Messenger
- TikTok
However, there were some countries where the social media landscapes were slightly different, with other platforms being more popular:
- X (formerly known as Twitter) made it into the top five most popular social platforms in Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.
- Snapchat made it into the top five most popular social platforms in Saudi Arabia.
- LinkedIn made it into the top five most popular social platforms in Qatar.
When entering a new market, always check the most popular social platforms in the country – and specifically check where your target audience likes to spend their time online interacting with brands like yours. Only by taking a tailored approach such as this, can you know you are using your social media budget wisely – and in the places most likely to get good results.
Want to learn more?
If you want more Middle Eastern and African digital marketing insights, check out the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Middle East and Africa. The report covers eight Middle Eastern and African countries, making it an ideal read for digital marketers wanting an easy-to-digest overview of the Middle Eastern and African market. Download your copy for free from Webcertain’s Self-learning platform today!
Data sources
All the stats quoted in this blog post are taken from the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Middle East and Africa, which used the latest data taken at the time of writing from the United Nations Population Fund, Internet World Stats, Similarweb and DataReportal.
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