Facebook Stats for Middle East and North Africa (Finally)

Everyone knows that it's impossible very hard to find recent and real stats and numbers about social media usage in the MENA region.

So when I came through the "MENA Facebook Demographics" study realized by "Spot On", a public relation agency located in the UAE, I got all excited about it. If there is any designer out there motivated to make an infographic from this it would be great :)

Facebook users in MENA count for 15 million people divided pretty equitably between North Africa 7,704,420 and Middle East 7,286,460 : let's say 50/50 .

As shown in the map, users are mainly from the region top economic countries: 1. Egypt 2. Saudi Arabia 3. Morocco 4. Tunisia and 5. UAE.

English is the main used display language with 50%, followed by French (25%) and Arabic (23%). This can be explained by the users demographics data: education level, income level, social category, etc.


Concerning the users gender, only 37% of Facebook users in MENA are female (which is very low comparing to the US and UK +50%). 
However, Bahrain and Lebanon have the closest approach to gender equality with 44% of female users.


And finally, two interesting results about age and relationship status: 

UAE and Qatar, among with 6 other countries, have the oldest population of Facebook users. The rest of the MENA region sticks to the Occidental model with around 70% users with less than 25 years.

Because they have the oldest users population, United Arab Emirates and Qatar have also the most users with "Married" as a relationship status.

The study has a detailed page for each country and as a Moroccan, I wanted to share this one:

The full report is available on SPOT ON website (Thanks guys for bringing this data to everyone).

How recruiting Geeks will profit to your company

Before getting to the point let me explain two things about this blog post title.

First, I wasn't comfortable with the word "Geek" because people always tend to picture a guy or a girl sitting in their room full of empty chips bags and spending 25hours on Internet.

I just kept it to have a catchy title but now let’s just read it "Computer curious person" to make everyone satisfied.

Secondly, you may think "Yet another bullshit article about generation Y". Well, guess what? It’s not! And here's why: I know a lot of people from this generation Y (my generation, I'm 23) who don't fit in the description you may read on business newspapers (unless you consider knowing how to use a mouse and a keyboard and having an iPod is an asset).

Many people of this Y thing don't like computers, don't adore the software in it and most important they are as frustrated when they use a computer as the other generations.

This a crucial point because, on the other hand, Geeks enjoyyyyys using a computer all the day (as far as they have a minimum of freedom). Even when it crashes they still enjoy fixing it!

Now let's get to the main topic: How (on earth) recruiting geeks will profit to your company?

As I said we are used to technology, internet and all the stuff close to that.

We know how to search Google and have the best results, we are natively close to computers and new software’s and we follow tech news which makes us aware of new (may be free) services and tools.

We are familiar with computing languages, technical data and love to handle and optimize this stuff.

I had my first work experience (not a summer/student job) but a real experience, at 18. Since that time I did several long internships in 5 companies in various positions: Marketing, Sales, Finance and now in IS, but let's skip that.

It's just amazing how people underestimate the tools they are using and prefer instead doing it manually, like comparing two files by printing them and going row by row.

I'm not flattering myself, but for each position I occupied, I manage to build what Henry Ford called: Productivity optimization tools and that taught me a lot!

Writing some Excel's VBA code isn't that hard for people used to it or linking an HTML form to a spreadsheet a get the results directly instead of always typing and typing. 

Want a good dashboard for your financial charts and projections? Sure, I'll do it.

The other advantage is that they have experienced and seen many programs so when you train them to use yours it will only take a couple of weeks before they nailed it (and maybe show you some new features).

This can save you a lot of cash if you have any small tech or web projects, I mean if you want to roll out an internal website or a collaborative platform for example, you will know who to put in charge instead of hiring someone to do it.

And even if they don't have any knowledge about that, Geeks are curious by nature and are, for most of them, self-learners using forums, step by step tutorials, videos, etc.

Geeks are what mass media meant with the generation Y speech: they are the real digital natives!!

They will help you make and save a lot by bringing those skills and interest and re-engineer the way your business people do their work.

Now the problem is: Those people are often already working in the company, but in IT and IS.

Bnp Paribas, Fnac et TomTom s'installent au Maroc

Le Maroc n'est pas seulement une destination touristique ensoleillées, il s'agit également d'un pays émergent avec des atouts économiques concrets.

Une stabilité politique, proximité Européenne, similarités culturelles, facilité d'implantation et allégements fiscaux sont les ingrédients de la recette Marocaine pour attirer les investisseurs étrangers. Si on y ajoute la résistance à la crise financière et économique le Maroc passe le test les mains levées.

Voilà pourquoi, ces 15 derniers jours le nombre d'annonces d'implantation a depassé le seuil habituelle.

BNP Paribas, Fnac et TomTom : trois grandes entreprises Européennes qui ont décidé de franchir la méditerranée pour déployer leurs activités dans le Royaume.

• Le cas BNP Paribas

Les Marocains sont déjà habitués au logo étoilés de la banque Françaises via ses filiales locales : La BMCI et Cetelem.

Ces dernières jouissent d'une position confortable aussi bien sur le marché B2B que B2C.

La BNP développera exclusivement son offre vers les professionnels, en espérant se positionner comme LA banque d'affaire de la place et surement pour ne pas faire trop d'ombre à ses filliales.

En tous cas, la banque prévoit d'atteindre 1 milliards d'actifs gérés d'ici 2013.

• La Franchise FNAC

Une première pour la société du Groupe PPR : Franchiser ces magasins !

C'est le groupe AKSAL qui introduira la FNAC au Maroc avec le lancement du Morocco Mall en 2011 (utopie ou travaux en accélération ?).

Le groupe déjà positionné sur la grande distribution en Prêt-à-porter, Lingerie et Décoration mais aussi en Immobilier et Aménagement d'intérieur, bénéficie d'une bonne situation financière et élargit de plus en plus sont portefeuilles de marques.

L'offre de la Fnac sera adaptée aux spécificités locales, avec des produits francophones et arabophones en espérant élargir son implantation locale à 4 autres magasins (Rabat, Marrakech, Agadir, Casa 2 ?).

• La navigation Gps by TomTom 

Depuis 2 ans, on a eu droit à plusieurs annonces de lancement de GPS au Maroc. Cette fois heureusement c'est bien réel !

Le leader Européen (Mondial?) TomTom proposera une carte du Maroc dans ces produits. 

Au choix : Un Tomtom XL (produit bien connu dans la place) avec une cartographie Europe + Maroc, ou un Tomtom Start (Produit économique basique, mais performant : testé ici).

Adaptations locales obligées : Les instructions vocales seront disponibles en Français et en Arabe (darija ou pas ?).

Le GPS distribués par MCI et équipé de cartes TéléAtlas (non non ce n'est pas une entreprise Marocaine ^^) couvrira Casablanca, Rabat, Tanger, Marrakech et Agadir (villes économiques et touristiques) avec plus de 67.000 km de route.

Le marché Marocain a un gros potentiel, si l'on croit le VP des ventes Tomtom Middle East North Africa :

"Avec plus de 2 millions de véhicules sur les routes chaque jour, le Maroc est un pays doté d’un fort potentiel pour nous, d’où cette étape logique dans notre stratégie d’expansion en Afrique du Nord " Frédéric Langin.

De plus, le Maroc serait juste un premier lancement-test pour le Maghreb, la société prevoyant un deploiement vers la Tunisie et l'Algérie.

En tous cas, j'affectionne particulièrement cette nouvelle, autant les autres implantations ne constituent pas une première dans le Royaume, je prédis un bon gros chiffre d'affaire/bénéfices comme on les aimes sur les segments particuliers et professionels.


Enfin, j'attends de voir les résultats de ces nouveaux arrivants et surtout les échos des impacts réels sur les Marocains.