Ramadan in Mideast is for fasting and Facebook, data shows
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with its long days of
fasting and prayer meant to draw worshippers closer to God and away from
worldly distractions, is being reshaped by technology.
People in the Middle East spend close to 58 million more
hours on Facebook during Ramadan and watch more YouTube videos — everything
from beauty tips and recipes to sports and TV dramas — than any other time of
the year, making the holy month not only the most important one for Muslims, but
also the prime time of the year for advertisers.
For Facebook, which also owns Instagram, and Google, which
owns YouTube, Ramadan brings a welcome boost of business in the region.
“Consumption and time spent on our platforms does indeed
increase,” said Ramez Shehadi, Facebook’s managing director for Mideast and
North Africa.
People stay up a lot more at night during Ramadan and have
more downtime — especially before iftar, the evening meal that breaks the
daylong fast, and the “suhoor,” when people gather to eat before another day of
fasting. Many also work shorter hours during the day.
All that translates to 5% more time spent on Facebook’s
platforms, or what is nearly 58 million more hours, Shehadi said. Put another
way, there are almost 2 million hours of additional time spent daily on
Facebook in the Mideast during Ramadan.
Ramadan is also the peak season for advertising in the
region, as TV dramas and soap operas get a 151% increase in viewership on
YouTube during the holy month, according to Google.
“Our revenue is a function of people’s engagement,” Shehadi
said. “The more that they engage on our platforms, the more that advertisers
want to be able to reach those that are engaging. That’s what drives our
revenue.”
So much ad revenue is spent during Ramadan that Google
launched “The Lantern Award” to celebrate the most creative and engaging ads of
the month.
Yet Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food and
drink, including water, during the day. It’s also about disconnecting from
vacuous distractions and focusing on contemplation, introspection, acts of
good, charity and connecting with God. It can appear then as a contradiction
that this is also when companies ramp up their efforts to get people to buy
more, view more and engage in excess consumerism.
Google does not disclose total watch time for YouTube during
Ramadan, but says that in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for
example, viewing of sports videos jumps by 22%, travel videos by 30%, and
action games, simulation and video games by 10-20% during the holy month.
People also spend 27% more time watching religious content
on YouTube in Ramadan.
“To us, YouTube brings people together. We see a lot of
people wanting to watch things together,” said Joyce Baz, Google’s head of
communications in Mideast and North Africa.
She added that Google products, like its search engine, are
there “to simplify people’s lives so that they can focus on things that matter
like being with their loved ones and family.” Google’s “Qibla Finder,” for
example, helps Muslims find the direction of Mecca to pray toward, wherever
they happen to be.
Google says this year’s top trending search queries during
the first week of Ramadan in Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia included a surprising
mix of Game of Thrones, prayer times, Ramadan TV shows, movie timings and
English Premier League results.
Meanwhile, some of the most popular downloaded apps in the
Mideast on the Google Play store during Ramadan include games like Stack Ball,
streaming apps like Vu and Shahid and online retailers Noon and Jolly Chic.
Iftar evening meals are a major social affair during
Ramadan, ranging from lavish spreads at home to decadent five-star hotel
buffets. This translates into a 16% spike in beauty product searches and an 18%
spike in searches for beauty tips on YouTube, compared to the rest of the year.
Also, according to Google maps, trips to the malls increase by more than 20% in
the last weeks of Ramadan in preparation for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which
ends the holy month.
Fatima el-Barbar, an Egyptian mother living in Dubai, said
she searches more for recipes and watches her favorite TV dramas online during
Ramadan. But she said that between her job, taking care of the children,
preparing iftar each night, her daily prayers and reading the Quran, the Muslim
holy book, there’s little time for the internet.
“I actually have less time for the internet in Ramadan than
in other days of the year,” she said.
To help companies better understand consumer habits in
Ramadan, Google identified six categories of audiences: dedicated watchers,
devoted fasters, foodies, groomers, travelers and shoppers.
“YouTube is a companion during Ramadan, a platform where
viewers can watch what they want, whenever they want throughout the day,”
Google says in its own pitch to advertisers.
To more authentically connect with roughly 180 million users
in the Middle East, Facebook and Instagram launch special Ramadan icons to give
people more customized ways of expressing themselves online. Instagram also has
a campaign to promote acts of kindness during the month.
“We’re trying to be magnifiers and propagators of goodness
as opposed to what might seem on the surface like an extension of consumerism,”
Shehadi said. “It resonates with the ethos of Ramadan and certainly the ethos
of Facebook, which is around bringing people together around things that matter
to them.”
Haitham el-Ghoneim, a Jordanian resident in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates, said he uses Facebook to connect with friends during
Ramadan, sharing traditional greetings for the holy month and checking on his
family in Jordan.
Still, he doesn’t think the rest of it — all that time spent
online, on games, scrolling and ads — is a good thing. “It’s not being spent in
a useful way. It’s mostly fake news, or jokes and things that have no benefit,”
he said.