If you’re hashtagging from the Arab world, chances are you’re now one in a million. Literally.
According to a recent infographic compiled by Jordan-based tweeter Khaled ElAhmad, there are currently over one million active Twitter users in the Middle Eastern/North African region: 1,311,882 users, to be exact.
While the high number could be attributed to the fact that Twitter is quickly becoming the next Facebook, other driving factors could include the Arab Spring uprisings and the fact that the social networking service added language support for Arabic back in March. The latter’s impact is especially noted as hashtagging “Bahrain” and “Syria” in Arabic were two of the top three most popular topics discussed in Twitter during that month.
The new data was compiled using research from the Dubai School of Government’s Arab Social Media Report. Here are some highlights:
- Kuwait currently leads the way in Twitter population penetration, with 8.13% of the Kuwaiti population tweeting on a regular basis.
- That might not remain true for long, as Saudi Arabia saw more than a 200% increase in its number of active users between September 2011 and March 2012, compared to only 100% in Kuwait.
- Kuwait tweeted the most during the month of March, followed closely by Saudi Arabia.
- #Bahrain and #Syria were the most popular topics on Twitter during February and March 2012.
For more detailed facts and numbers, check out the full infographic below.
And with that, we’ll sign off this post in true Twitter fashion:
#Khaleejesque
– Kawther Albader
