A report by GSMA Intelligence on the global consumer insights reveals that the State of Qatar is first among Arab countries and second in the world behind only South Korea in terms of engagement with mobile services and applications for a second year in a row.
As per the report Qatar reached the highest score 6.0 on the GSMA Global Mobile Engagement Index (GMEI). This is due to our high usage, particularly for messenger and VoIP applications where Qatar ranked highest in the world.
“The result of the report is firmly in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 strategic goal of enabling the development of a sustainable digital society in the State of Qatar, and it is an outcome of our keenness to ensure that all consumers in Qatar have access to a broad range of high quality and reliable telecommunications services. I would like to thank the Qatari service providers, consumers and stakeholders for supporting the nation’s vision and for their contribution to reach such high levels of digital engagement throughout the country,” said H.E. Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti.
“This indicator does not only look towards Qatar's leadership in technological infrastructure development, but also it includes users development and their high ability to use and deal with modern technology,” said H.E. Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA.
The report indicates that at more than 50% of phone owners in Qatar use at least once per month mobile internet communication (voice and video calls), social networking and entertainment as playing games, watching online video or listening to online music.
The results also show that up to 49% of all phone owners in Qatar use at least once per month digital commerce like purchasing goods online or financial services, like transferring money or paying utility bills.
GMEI is based on the usage patterns of 50,000 adult survey respondents across 50 countries in 2017, and it helps interpret engagement levels among smartphone and non-smartphone owners across an array of use cases and services, 26 mobile use cases were monitored in 10 categories; traditional communication, Apps, Mobile Internet communication, navigation, Internet, lifestyle, financial services, social networking, entertainment, digital commerce.
The full report can be accessed through this link.