Saleh Fareed

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — As many countries around the world have gone through a social media boom in recent years, the number of Internet users in Saudi Arabia has surpassed more than 13 million, according to an IT expert.



During his lecture at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and industry (JCCI) recently, Abdullah Al-Ghadoni, e-marketing director at Nokia, announced that 51 percent of internet users in the Kingdom are active on Twitter, while 42 percent are active on Facebook.



He added that 90 million of Saudi Arabia's Internet users view "YouTube" every day, one of the highest figure from a single country.



“Despite this revealing numbers I am really surprised that many Saudi companies are not taking step forward to invest in e-marketing as others around the world do,” he said.



He noted that by utilizing e-marketing, Saudi companies will immediately see the changes which will in turn contribute to increasing the presence, sales and potentially market share.



Explained that more users going online using their smart phones, he said “around 85 percent of smart phone users always search of what they need to buy through their phones and 77 percent of those users purchase directly online.”



The lecture which was attended by 150 people at JCCI suggested that internet marketers should start developing their lead-generation campaigns in light of future huge infrastructure developments in Saudi Arabia and that e-commerce would be a profitable area to enter.



Al-Ghadoni pointed out that effective use of digital marketing and social media would achieve a comprehensive understanding of customers’ interest, expand the circle of commercial activities and the ability to deliver the various characteristics of services and products in order to attract new visitors and increase the rate.