The Mobile Advertising Market in the Middle East

  

While doing some research work I came across a wonderful presentation by Wael Quader, CEO, Noqoush a mobile media agency catering to the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The twenty two minute presentation is quite insightful in the context of mobile advertisement in the MENA region. The fact that Noqoush is audited by Effective Measures, a premier research agency adds further credibility to the presentation. One can go through the video by following the given link- The Mobile Advertising Market in the Middle East- Wael Quader.

As finding quality statistics is a real challenge in the MENA region, I just thought of extracting some key statistics and insights from the video and write a blog-

·         Total number of mobile phone subscribers (2012) in Middle East stand at 250 million.

·         The total number of internet users in Middle East stand at 77 million, out of which around 35 million access internet through mobile phones.

·         One of the biggest markets in the Middle East in terms of mobile usage is Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It has a subscriber base of 53 million out of which around 11.3 million access internet through phones.

·         Three biggest markets in terms of ad requests are- KSA, UAE and Egypt.

·         Popular mobile application categories include- Games, social messaging, video streaming, music and entertainment and news and sports.

·         Types of mobile ads include- Simple, dynamic and rich media. Rich Media- 70% of users are interested in rich media. Rich media will play an important role in the near future.

·         Click through rate (CTR) - CTR is a measure of effectiveness of ad campaigns. It is equivalent to the no. of times a click is made on an ad divided by number of impressions. (The number of impression is the number of times an ad has been served). The following graph will give some insight about the CTR for some of the MENA countries.

        Fig 1: shows the CTR for various Middle Eastern countries.

In the given context there are two important points to be noted. 1^st CTR is not always a sufficient measure for effectiveness of ad campaigns as effectiveness also depends on the number of ads served. For instance Qatar with a CTR of 0.9 seems a better option than KSA which has a CTR of 0.6. However the reason for slightly lower CTR in KSA’s case could be the high volume of ads issued. 2^nd the statistics given over here are with respect to AdFalcon , Noquosh’s advertising platform and hence cannot be generalized.  

Analysis of E-Commerce in MENA , Part 3- Nahel Vs Souq

                                                      

In the last two articles on E-commerce, we analyzed the internet statistics & consumption behavior in MENA region. The subsequent articles including this one will be dedicated to emerging e-commerce websites in the region. In recent past, few successful e-commerce websites- Nahel, Souq, Cobone, Sukar, and Emiratesavenue.com etc - have emerged in the digital media landscape of the region.

The following analysis will compare Souq & Nahel- two of the leading multiple goods online e-commerce sites active in the region. The scope of comparison will be general facts, web & social media analytics.

Souq Vs Nahel

Table 1: compares Nahel & Souq across some general facts. Source: Nahel & Souq websites

                Table 2: compares Nahel & Souq websites. Source: Google Double click ad planner

Table 3:  Shows the popularity of the two websites, for various demographic profiles, in comparison to general internet population.  Source: alexa.com

Table 4: compares Nahel & Souq across basic social media parameters. (Note: the Facebook facts for Souq is only for Souq Uae)

Analysis

·         Souq has a much wider presence than Nahel, which is focused on UAE/Dubai only.

·         The high popularity of Souq could be attributed to- early mover advantage, offices across the region, options for selling as well, broader payment gateway options etc.

·         Nahel as a brand is more focused on working class educated females from UAE. Contrast to this Souq has a broader presence.