As another year ends and a new one begins, we find ourselves in a time for reminiscence, reflection and review, but also a time to look to the future and what it might hold. While we’re yet to receive our crystal ball from Santa, we’d like to think we know our stuff when it comes to social connectivity platforms, and we’re well-placed to share a few thoughts about 2024 – and a few content predictions for our industry for 2025.
Reach has always been an obvious result of growing popularity, but with much regional geopolitical instability in 2024 it’s become more and more evident that the topic of conversation creators choose is equally as influential. We expect this trend in 2025, as GCC audiences increasingly seek content that aligns with their own personal values and interests.
A defining factor in content popularity was the way notable moments and events were brought to screens and feeds. In 2024, short form content continued to dominate, allowing users to stay informed. Moving into 2025, we see this continuing, but a key difference will be the content itself. Against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical instability in the region, and overwhelming amounts of information being released at pace, we’re expecting to see an even greater demand.
Translating this into impact on social connectivity, we’ll see brands, creators
and media owners that create content based on a purpose or qualified expertise bolstering engagement and building stronger communities.
Content itself was 2024’s social connectivity differentiator at sporting
events. Athletes used their social platforms to share their personal stories and experiences, rather than simply posting performances and results.
Today’s fans – particularly in this part of the world, where connections are everything – are hungry for more than just the sporting action and want a deeper link to their favourite athletes as individuals. We’ll see this demand replicated, and further emphasised, throughout 2025.
Moving onto retail and marketing, cautious spending seen across all income groups in 2024 put pressure on retailers to stand out from the crowd and show how they were delivering value. While spending power was perhaps less affected in the GCC region than elsewhere around the globe, with disposable income on the rise in Saudi Arabia as a local example, retailers, brands and marketers were still under pressure to show results.
For those retailers producing their own ad content, digital platforms are the way forward. Having captured 68.8 per cent of the globe’s total ad spend market in 2024, we fully expect to see this dominance continue.
In the region, we estimate a staggering $385bn in annual purchasing power among locals in KSA and UAE alone, supported by a positive outlook for the future, which allows them to quickly adapt to ongoing transformations. Looking ahead, we expect retailers – and particularly premium brands, popular across the GCC – to lean more into inspiration-led marketing, handing over the reins to creators who can act as trusted advocates for their brands.
And finally, we come to one last consideration: a common thread that weaves through everything we’ve discussed above. Sophisticated tech and innovation such as augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (Gen AI) featured strongly in all areas of social connectivity
in 2024.
Creators using AI as a tool, not a stand-in, and maintaining the human connection were the big winners throughout the year. Brands and retailers investing in immersive technologies such as AR created shopping experiences that blended aspiration with practicality. Customers could ‘try on’ sneakers via their phone, made possible by Snap’s Gen AI-assisted Garment Generation technology. We also launched our fifth-generation Spectacles: see-through, standalone AR glasses that allowed users to experience the world in totally new ways, with digital overlaid onto reality.
It’s unfathomable to think technology won’t continue to create phenomenally transformative impact in 2025. AI will continue to make AR experiences ever smarter, more accurate, more immersive and more creative. It will supercharge the ability for any creative person to bring their imagination to life through AR: they’ll be able to build lenses in a matter of minutes.
AR will become the presentation layer of AI, showcasing text, visuals and on-screen directions. AR will become ever more social as developers gain the ability to build experiences that enable people in the same space to connect through technology. We’ll even see Gen AI play a role in educational content, building bridges to the past by being used to regenerate informative archived content.
With 2024 behind us, we are reflecting on a year that, despite its share of challenges, has seen significant technological progress, a growing creator economy, positive shifts in social connectivity, and stronger outcomes for brands, retailers and marketers.
As we look ahead, while we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, we remain committed to our mission and are eager to continue building authentic connections that resonate with the diverse communities across the region.
By Jake Thomas, Head of UAE, Snap Inc.
