Inside the Middle East’s love affair with Snapchat and Bitmoji

This is an extract from my new report “State of Social Media, Middle East: 2018,” which was co-written with Payton Bruni and published earlier this year. Read the Executive Summary and other sections on Market Context, Facebook and Twitter.

Snapchat

Half way through the year, Snapchat reported 188 million daily users around the world. More widely, around 300 million people use the app each month.

In the Middle East, Rami Saad, Snapchat’s head of international content partnerships has indicated:

“There are about 12 million daily users from across the GCC with Saudi Arabia alone accounting to about 9 million. There are about 1 million active users in the UAE.”

In November, Snapchat announced that more than 30 shows, from 20 popular MENA brands, would be launching on the platform.

“Each Show averages five minutes in length with about 10 second frames that can be swiped like a magazine,” explained Joseph George at TahawulTech.com.

“Leading TV networks and entertainment studios are [already] reimagining popular series for Snapchat,” wrote Austyn Allison for Campaign Middle East.

Content can be found “across entertainment, sport and food,” she said, highlighting…