Thando Mafongosi, We Are Social’s Strategy PartnerThe annual Global Digital Report from We Are Social and Meltwater, along with the mid-year Statshot, provides a detailed picture of how people worldwide connect and behave online. Using data from partners such as GWI and Statista and with analysis by Simon Kemp, it reveals significant regional differences in internet use, including in the GCC, highlighting why marketers must stop treating global audiences as interchangeable.
Which brings us to the GCC. Marketers love efficiency. But in this region; efficiency’s shadow twin uniformity can quietly kill effectiveness.
For years, “the Arabic market” has been treated as a monolith. One audience. One language. One strategy. Yet the latest data tells a richer story: the Gulf is a patchwork of hyper-connected but deeply distinct consumer behaviours, digital habits, and tech appetites.
Even markets that look similar on the surface can behave very differently. Campaigns that assume everyone engages the same way, shops the same way, or uses the same platforms risk missing the moments that really matter.
In this article we’ll use Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the region’s two largest and most digitally mature markets, to illustrate just how sharp those differences can be and why they matter for brands across the wider GCC.
Attention first: Mapping the GCC media reality
Where do people actually spend their attention? That’s the question marketers need to start with.
In the UAE, people spend 38 hours a week on online media, well above the global average of 33 hours. In Saudi Arabia, it’s around 31 hours. Social media reach exceeds the total population in both countries (UAE: 99.7 per cent, Saudi: 105.5 per cent), and residents juggle more platforms than the global average (UAE: 8.13, Saudi: 7.81 vs. 6.84). TV is a smaller part of the picture (9h48m per week in the UAE, 8h16m in Saudi – both below global averages).
What this shows: A campaign built around traditional TV in the GCC will miss much of the audience. Digital-first isn’t optional; it’s the baseline.
Infrastructure shapes experiences
Almost everyone is online in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but the speed and quality of connectivity changes how audiences experience content.
The UAE’s median mobile download speed is 539.84 Mbps, the fastest in the world, making it easy to deliver high-definition video, live-stream, shopping, and immersive AR experiences. Saudi Arabia’s 196.28 Mbps is also fast (7th globally), but heavy data-intensive formats may need to be optimised for the best user experience.
The insight: Successful campaigns don’t just translate creative across borders, they adapt it to the technology people are actually using.
Tech adoption varies: The GCC is technologically ambitious, but adoption isn’t uniform. In the UAE, 42 per cent of internet users tried ChatGPT in the past month, second only to Kenya. In Saudi Arabia, the figure is 26.9 per cent. Overall interest in AI is strong in both countries (UAE: 53.7 per cent, Saudi: 57.5 per cent), but adoption patterns differ.
What it means for brands: Some innovations can be integrated immediately in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, they may require education, trust-building, or demonstration before scaling.
Commerce behaviours tell the real GCC story
Online shopping is strong across the region, but patterns differ:
- Weekly online purchases: UAE 61.5 per cent, Saudi 55.3 per cent.
- Weekly online grocery: UAE 40.5 per cent, Saudi 35.1 per cent.
- Monthly food delivery: UAE 54.8 per cent, Saudi 39.2 per cent.
Brand research habits also differ. In Saudi Arabia, 57.1 per cent of users rely on social media to research products, while in the UAE it’s 46.4%, with search playing a bigger role.
The nuance matters: The UAE rewards brands that own “now” moments like instant delivery, flash offers, mobile-first checkout. Saudi Arabia favours campaigns that maintain visibility over time, connecting with audiences during planned purchase cycles.
Reach without resonance: representation still lags: The GCC has some of the most digitally engaged audiences in the world but that doesn’t mean they feel seen. In the UAE, 19.3 per cent of internet users say they feel represented in advertising, modestly above the global average of 16.1 per cent. In Saudi Arabia, it drops to 14.0 per cent, below the global norm. For a country that leads globally in TikTok and YouTube ad reach, this gap is striking.
The reality: Reach isn’t the same as resonance. Campaigns that rely on pan-Arab clichés or treat the GCC as a single cultural block risk blending into the noise. Even with sky-high platform usage, Saudis (and Arabs more broadly) don’t consistently recognize themselves in the ads flooding their feeds.
What this shows: Representation hasn’t kept pace with digital penetration, leaving a wide gap for brands willing to move beyond uniformity and lean into cultural authenticity.
The three GCC brand rules
The data makes one thing clear: there is no single GCC playbook. Even markets that share language, religion, or culture behave differently online.
So, the rules are simple:
- Be present in the moments that matter. Relevance comes from responding to audience behaviour, not just language. Real presence is about cultural authenticity, not just ad reach.
- Adapt to the local infrastructure. Devices, speeds, and platform habits change how content is experienced. But keep in mind that optimising content for formats/platforms without local nuance means you’ll still miss emotional depth.
- Segment by behaviour, not borders. Differences in tech adoption, platform use, and shopping habits demand tailored creative, media, and experiences. The data proves that uniformity kills resonance. Behavioral segmentation opens space for cultural specificity.
In a region where “Arabic” is often shorthand for sameness, the most effective brands see difference as opportunity. Because in the GCC, relevance isn’t about speaking Arabic, it’s about speaking local.
by Thando Mafongosi, We Are Social’s Strategy Partner
