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More than half of internet users in the Kingdom spent more than seven hours a day online in 2023, according to the latest Saudi Internet report (pdf) by the Communications, Space, and Technology Commission.
Our top 10 sites (in order of popularity):
- Youtube
- X
- Tiktok
- Wikipedia
- Amazon
- Madrasati
More than 60% of traffic in Saudi went through Chrome, followed by Safari at 31.9%.
Internet penetration inched up 0.4% y-o-y to 99% in 2023, with 99.3% of men and 98.5% of women having access.
Gen Z and younger millennials are the most online, with 100% internet penetration in the 25-29 age group. Older folks are the least, with 77.3% of people in that demographic having internet access.
Peak hours: 9pm to 11pm daily in 2023, with Friday of every week usually seeing the most traffic. December was 2023’s busiest month in terms of internet usage. Mobile phones were the primary access point for 98.9% of users last year, followed by desktops/laptops, tablets and others (think smartwatch, gaming platforms, e-readers).
Internet use was a mix of everything: Top activities online ranged from downloading apps to buying goods and services online to staying updated on news to downloading games and movies to sending emails among others.
Good news for Digital Saudi: Online government services last year saw 95.5% usage rate last year, followed by digital banking at 73.6% and e-commerce at 63.7%.
The most-downloaded apps: Nafath (the Kingdom’s official digital identity application), followed by online fast-fashion retailer Shein and TikTok. AlRajhi Bank had the most popular fintech app, followed by Stc Pay and Tabby. Ninja topped delivery apps, followed by HungerStation and the McDonald’s app.
