Why a post-IPO Twitter needs Saudi Arabia, in 3 graphs
[photo from
SUSTG.com].
After selling 70 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange last
week, Twitter's future is looking bright.
Its IPO was generally deemed a success, mostly because TWTR shares weren't being sold off by the end of the first trading day. However some, like Vauhini Vara at the New Yorker, argue that by pricing its stock higher, it could have made a billion dollars more than it did- more than sum of its total revenue to date.
Regardless of how one measures success, it's clear that the Twitter's work is, in a sense, just beginning. The pressure is now on for the social network to grow, gain more active users (some estimate that only around 26% of users are actually active, and 61% have never even tweeted once), and boost its revenue from international markets (only 26% of its profits last quarter came from outside the US).
To achieve all three goals, Twitter will have to look to a
market many might not expect: Saudi Arabia.
Why?
1. Saudi Arabia has the highest Twitter penetration in
the world.
According to PeerReach, Twitter penetration in
Saudi is a whopping 33%, higher than any other country analyzed in
the study.
GlobalIndexWeb, on the other hand, estimated the percentage to
be 41%. Either way, it's at the top.
2. Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest-growing Twitter markets in the world.
Data from 2012 show that Saudi Arabia ranked eighth in terms of
growth in active users, according to GlobalWebIndex.
Yet in the first eight months of this year, over one million people
in Saudi joined Twitter, boosting the total number of Saudi Twitter
users by 128%, which would hit the top of the below graph.
This incredibly fast rate shows no sign of slowing.
3. Saudi has a high percentage of active users.
Of 3.7 million active Twitter users in the Middle East, 1.9 million live in Saudi, according to the Dubai School of Government's 5th Arab Social Media Report, where an active user is defined as "someone who logs in (but does not necessarily tweet) once a month."
Twitter's
own forecasts indicate that it will be looking to Saudi
Arabia as well as Argentina, France, Japan, Russia, and South
Africa, for coming growth.
And now that Twitter is profitable
for the first time, it will have to figure out how to
make money from the near
75% of its users that live outside the
US. While digital
ad spend in the Middle East is lowest by region in the
world, perhaps multinationals looking to enter Saudi Arabia will be
persuaded to buy up sponsored Tweets.
So why is usage so high in Saudi?
Twitter already has a relationship with Saudi Arabia; Saudi Prince
Al-Waleed bin Talal invested $300 million USD in the company in
December 2011, giving him a 3% share in the company.
But as for the rest, some say that it's an innate affinity.
"Twitter appeals to the Saudi user. He just wants to say what is on
his mind, float an idea, debate and discuss it and jump onto a new
subject,” Bilal Hallab, a social business strategist at social
media consultancy Social Clinic, told Arab News.
Manal Assaad, a Saudi social media analyst at The Manalyst, told
the publication that use is driven by discovery. “From my personal
experience, I can say that Twitter can give the youth a great boost
in terms of data discovery and knowledge, ideas and value
exchange,” said Assaad. “Twitter allows the youth to follow local
and international professionals who share their knowledge as well
as useful tips and articles in small doses on a frequent
basis.”
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