Qatar: Digital Media Insights

Following are the “Key Insights” derived from the Qatar Digital Media Report 2011. (The report is based on a survey conducted over 633 respondents from Qatar.) It could be helpful to media companies, researchers, strategist and web and mobile entrepreneurs.

·         Qatar's digital media is considered to be in its nascent stage. However double digit growth is expected for another four years, pertaining to high investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, young demographics and higher technology adoption rate.

·         95 % of the very large businesses (> 500 employees), 68% of large businesses (>100 employees), 40 % of medium (10-99 employees) businesses and 6 % of small businesses (fewer than 10 employees) in Qatar have web presence.

·         Overall internet penetration in Qatar stands high at 82%. Mobile broadband penetration has increased by 130 % during the time period 2009-10.

·         Majority of internet user fall under low to mid income groups. More than 90 % of users at least have a high school degree.

·         One fifth of the internet users, which include students, housewives and retired person are not involved in labor market.

·         Internet users in Qatar use internet through multiple mediums such as laptop, desktop and mobile phones. 75 % use laptops, 51% use desktops and 24% use mobile devices to access internet.

·         Majority (89%) of users, access internet from home.

·         Most popular sites in Qatar include social media, search engines, e-newspapers and news channels.

·         Most popular social media is Facebook (28.3 % penetration) followed by Orkut and Twitter as distant second and third.

·         The most popular search engine is Google followed by Yahoo and MSN.

·         The most popular e-newspaper website is Gulf Times followed by Al-Sharq and Al-Raya.

·         Internet users in Qatar do not tend to watch TV programs or listen to radio songs over internet. However technologies enabling better video streaming can change the trend in near future.

·         42% of internet users have their native language as Arabic. In spite of this, there is a dearth of good quality Arabic contents both in Qatar as well as in the Middle East region.  

·         Outsourcing of website is very popular as 69 % of companies with website host their website with external vendor. (44% use a local provider where as 25 % use  international provider)

·         Online marketing and e-commerce are gaining popularity. However online advertisements are not very popular. Only 14 % of organizations use the web media to promote their products and services. 40 % of large organizations use online advertisements compared to just 11 % of smaller ones.

·         Internet security is a major concern as 43 % of users are not assured of the security features over the internet.