As according to, the TRA Google-owned YouTube saw a 16% surge in native subscribers in March.
In March, most of the social networking sites and extraordinary services, video streaming services resembling Netflix, Amazon Prime, registered a double-digit growth within the range of its direct consumers, in keeping with the UAE’s telecoms regulator.
The Telecommunications Regulatory unit stated, while not revealing the precise numbers, stated that the global Social Media giant YouTube saw a sixteen percent month-on-month increase in users throughout March, whereas Facebook and Twitter also registered a seventeen percent and twenty-two percent monthly surge, correspondingly.
The larger use of digital platforms comes because the UAE quickly closed schools and suggested firms to shift to remote operating as a part of its efforts to contain the coronavirus natural event. The average fixed-line broadband speed has spiked to 100.1 megabits per second in March, an eleven per cent increase than December last year, the TRA stated.
Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, TRA director, told The National that “The surge within the web activity and traffic on social media sites with none disruption reflects the strength of the communications and data technology infrastructure in the UAE.”
Mr Mansouri stated that “The demand for web services has sharply surged as a results of the current crisis that’s forcing folks to remain home and it may or might not decrease even when the tip of this crisis. We are swift paced to 5G networks as a result of we tend to believe that the country’s ambition for digital transformation needs high web speeds.”
- A 5G network guarantees an online speed of up to 1.2 gigabits per second, which can bit by bit reach 10Gbps. It additionally features a latency of lower than one millisecond, comparatively to a twenty milliseconds as witnessed for a 4G network.
- Among OTT platforms, Amazon Prime subscribers raised forty-four percent the previous month, whereas its rival Netflix registered a twenty-six percent jump in consumer numbers.
- Other social media platforms to visualize the picture and video-sharing platform Instagram, that saw a twelve percent upswing, whereas Snapchat recorded a nine percent upswing in its monthly consumers.
- Research by Dubai-headquartered analysis and digital media agency Global Media Insight disclosed that Google-owned YouTube had 8.65 million consumers in February.
- It was followed by Facebook and Instagram with 7.88 million and 6.68 million users, comparatively.
Francis Kalarickal, director of Global Media Insight, stated that “With the current crisis that is ever mounting up, social media usage and networking have seen a phenomenal rise not to mention the spike in video conferencing as to be in touch with near and dear ones even if they are poles apart.”
He also stated that “With the other two Social Giants Google and Facebook “upping their video services, April usage would be higher.”
He further noted that “Ramadan will further contribute to incomparable surge in consumers’ engagement with the channels.”
