AN INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN SAUDI
ARABIA
Sanaa Askool
Informatics Research Centre, University of Reading, Reading, U.K.
Keywords: Social Media, Web 2.0, Saudi Arabia, Developing Countries.
Abstract: Social media are new communication tools and exist in a range of forms that allow a user to connect and
interact with others. Additionally, they offer a way to create a collaborative environment through
participation and sharing information. Even though social media tools are widely used, it is not well
understood how individuals’ concerns and motivations influence their use. This paper aims to investigate
the use of social media among people in Saudi Arabia using a survey method to understand the impact of
cultural restrictions on individual’s motivation, intention behaviour and their actual use in business. Based
on the research results, users’ attitude and behaviour towards the use of social media are discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
The fast growth of Web 2.0 technologies that have
been observed over the past few years is changing
the daily life of many people around the world.
What attract individuals to use social media are the
ease of connection, communication, participation
and collaboration, as well as avoidance of restriction
for meeting people who are in different places. In
addition, they provide people with new and different
ways to interact over the Internet; using their PCs or
mobile devices. At the same time, the engagement
with these tools creates potential benefits as well as
concerns about the ways people are using them.
Similar to other communications tools, social media
services include certain social norms, rules and
principles which users have to follow.
Attitudes towards social media and their impacts
have been studied by researchers in the developed
countries (Dinev et al., 2009, Wu et al., 2008).
However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no
study that focuses on peoples’ behaviour towards
using social media tools in the Middle East, in
particular in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom of Saudi
Arabia currently is experiencing a rapid social
change as a result of wealth created by its oil and the
government’s commitment to modernization. It is
also facing population growth coupled with the
young-age structure of the Saudi population
(Ministry of Economy and Planning Report, 2009).
As a result, we believe that it is important to study
the effects of social media on Saudi society and its
people’s attitude and behaviour towards using them.
The survey conducted look at the social media
that are used by Saudi society. It aims to understand
how people are using these sites and their attitudes
and behaviours towards this form of communication
tools. This paper draws on a quantitative research
method; using a questionnaire for people in Saudi
Arabia who are using these websites in their
everyday lives and activities. One of the purposes of
this paper is to see whether the growth of social
media can be considered as a positive approach to
develop social and business relationships and as a
widely used source of information.
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 Social Media / Web 2.0
Social media and Web 2.0 are two terms that are
often used interchangeably which refer to highly
interactive technologies that emphasise human
interaction, collaboration and connectivity (Burns,
2008). Blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, social
networking services (SNS), video and RSS feeds are
the most common types of social media. In this
paper we will try to cover some of those tools:
Blogs are online journals (Mayfield, 2006)
offering many different messages such as long
essays, personal diaries or links to other websites.
471
Askool S..
AN INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN SAUDI ARABIA.
DOI: 10.5220/0003909604710481
In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST-2012), pages 471-481
ISBN: 978-989-8565-08-2
Copyright
c
 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

Microblogging is a real-time communication
publishing that combines social networking with
bite-sized blogging where messages are limited to
140 characters. Twitter is the most popular and
fastest growing service.
SNS: Personal web pages that focus on building
online communities and interacting with others to
share information, interests and activities (Kolbitsch
and Maurer, 2006). The most famous SNS are
Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
Wikis: enable a group of people to co-author
and interact by adding or editing articles online
(Kolbitsch and Maurer, 2006). Wikipedia, a widely
known online encyclopaedia, is the most famous
example, edited by users globally.
Over the past few years, these social media tools
have spread widely among individuals (Chui et al.,
2009) and have attracted attention of practitioners
and researchers. According to Nielsen’s (2010)
report almost three quarters (74%) of internet users
around the world are using SNS/blogging sites while
the average hours of using these sites equals six
hours per month. It was also revealed that more than
100 million users access SNS every month (Chui et
al., 2009). It is clear that a massive growth can be
highlighted and using these tools is not limited to
younger generations. According to a survey
conducted by Pew Internet to explore the Internet
usage in the US (Madden, 2010), the use of social
media has increased significantly and the quickest
growing age group is over 30. Moreover, the number
of users on SNS almost doubled over a year for the
50 and over age group (Madden, 2010).
Nielson (2009) revealed that the global use of
SNS has dramatically increased from December
2007 to December 2008; the SNS have attracted
close to 67% of the total online global population,
up from 61% the previous year. Members use these
websites for interacting, managing relationships and
keeping friends updated on their lives by sharing
status updates, photos and video (Nielsen Online,
2009). The main reason for this widespread attention
can be attributed to the fact they have attracted
millions of people who use them as their preferred
communication channel. While a wide range of tools
are coming under the list of social media, in this
paper we will cover the most common ones.
People use social media tools for personal and
professional use (O’murchu et al., 2004). Several
attractive factors that encourage people to join these
websites were discussed by Dinev (2009) and Wu et
al. (2008). Social media tools allow groups of people
to interact with each other or with other interested
members, with people from other disciplines with
similar interests, and with industry professionals and
mentors. They are easy and effective tools to create
and manage their relationships (O’murchu et al.,
2004). More individuals have been encouraged to be
a part of these social and professional networks as a
result of the development of the infrastructure of
these tools (O’murchu et al., 2004). In summary, all
of these tools can be used within an enterprise to
support or replace their current communication,
cooperation, collaboration and connection efforts.
2.2 Saudi Arabia and Internet Usage
In order to understand the impact of social media on
Saudi life, it is important to investigate the Saudi
Arabian culture. One of the key factors that affect
not only Saudi social life but also business is the
family : the most important social institution in
community because of the importance of family ties
is based on Islam (Al-Saggaf, 2004). The religion of
Saudi Arabia is Islam, a Muslim must keep in
contact with other members in the extended family
at all times and offer them anything considered as a
way of keeping ties with them (Al-Saggaf, 2004).
Therefore, Saudis prefer building social and business
relationships with family members rather than others
(Long, 2005). However, rapid modernisation and
increased interaction with the outside world resulted
in changing in the Saudi social environment.
In terms of business, most of Saudi firms are
family businesses that are owned and operated by
the dominance of a family and the senior executive
positions are filled by wealthy and well-educated
immediate family members (Long, 2005). In
addition, a family firm is considered as the social
welfare safety net that assists all members of the
extended family. Conversely, social networks have
also an impact on business; given a good
relationship with the right person, it will help a firm
to sell their product (Rodenbeck and Wells, 2004).
Therefore, it seems that Saudis have a different way
of doing business and managing relationships.
At the same time, the growing number of
educated people in Saudi Arabia, who are now
participating in the different roles of technical,
professional, and managerial positions, has been
accompanied by a fast growth in Internet usage from
around 1 million in 2001 to an estimated 11.4
million and the penetration rate increased to 43.6%
at the mid of 2011 (Internet World Stats, 2011). In
addition, Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the
fastest growing Internet markets and as the best
country among Arab countries in broadband speed
with average 3.53Mb/s (Kassar, 2010). According to
WEBIST2012-8thInternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies
472

the CITC (2010), a remarkable increase in the
number of broadband subscriptions from 2.75
million to 4.4 million between 2009 and 2010. This
growth was due to an exceptional grow in wireless
and wireless broadband and connections; grew by
more than 100% over 2009 which representative to
two-thirds of full broadband connections. In the
mean time, competition in the mobile
telecommunications market has resulted in main
improvements in service offerings, quality of
service, customer care, reduced prices, and
subscriber growth in using online services. A study
in using information technology (IT) in Middle East
shows that usage behaviours are often different from
those reported in the West due to cultural differences
(Alsukkar and Hasan, 2005). In Saudi Arabia,
culture continues to provide an important
contribution to the business environment; there are
tightly interwoven personal relationships, thus,
social networks are expected to play a more
significant role in various aspects of the community
including business (Long, 2005).
The social media revolution in Arab world has
been viewed either negatively or positively by
contributing to economic growth globally (Arab
Social Media Report, 2011). It has also indicated
that social media tools have the potential to promote
social inclusion and create opportunities for
employment, entrepreneurship and development
(Arab Social Media Report, 2011). Morrison (2010)
states that based on The Facebook Global Monitor
Data From Inside Face Gold report, Saudi Arabia
achieved an impressive growth of 13.4% in active
users between March and April 2010 and, with its
relatively low penetration rate, there are more
opportunities for growth in the future. It seems that
social media have attracted young people in Saudi
Arabia and freed them from some restrictions,
giving them chance to express themselves and
communicate with others.
3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
METHODOLOGY
The literature review suggested that different
external factors influence the use of technology and
may be experienced differently by different users.
Culture has been highlighted to be an external factor
that influences the use of technology and
information system—which leads the question of
how society culture influence the behaviour
intention and in turn the actual use of such a system.
Straub et al. (2003) proposed a model called Cultural
Influence Model and found that cultural beliefs have
great impact on resistance to IT transfer in Arab
countries. Loch et al. (2008) tested this model to
investigate how culture-specific beliefs and values
can enable and impediment the use of Internet in
Arab countries. They revealed that both social norm
and the degree of technological culturation influence
both individual and organisational use and
acceptance of the Internet. On the other hand, it has
also suggested that motivation plays great roles in
forming the user behaviour towards new technology
(Davis et al., 1992). Two types of motivation were
highlighted: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation. Davis et al. (1992, p.112) defined
extrinsic motivation as “the performance of an
activity because it is perceived to be instrumental in
achieving valued outcomes that are distinct from the
activity itself, such as improved job performance,
pay, or promotions”. Intrinsic motivation refers to
“the performance of an activity for no apparent
reinforcement other than the process of performing
the activity per se” (1992, p.112). Despite the fact
that both types of motivation have effect on the user
intention to use technology, different impacts across
different users may be found. Accordingly, limited
studies investigate the influence of cultural
restrictions on users’ motivation, behavioural
intention and finally the actual use. This leads to the
following research questions:
Q1: How do cultural restrictions in Saudi society
affect the use social media?
Q2: What is the relationship between cultural
restrictions in Saudi society and users’ motivation to
use social media?
Q3: What is the relationship between cultural
restrictions and users’ intention to use social media?
Q4: What is the relationship between cultural
restrictions and the actual use of social media?
A conceptual model (Figure 1) was developed
which guided data collection and analysis to
understand how it does relate to cultural restrictions,
users’ motivation, behavioural intention and actual
use in both social and business.
Figure 1: A conceptual model for understanding social
Media usage.
Cultural
Restrictions
Motivation
Actual Use
Behavioural
Intention
ANINVESTIGATIONOFSOCIALMEDIAUSEINSAUDIARABIA
473

The study was conducted through a survey
method for collecting the data with a total sample of
600 people who were pre-selected from the Saudi
community. The survey was conducted between 1
st
June and 15
th
July 2010. Most of the respondents
were participants of social media websites. A total of
362 valid responses were collected, yielding a
response rate of 60.1% (362/600).
3.1 Survey Administration
A questionnaire was designed for this purpose in
English, translated to Arabic. To confirm the validity
of the instrument, two academics who were
knowledgeable in instrument development and in the
field of internet technology use reviewed the survey.
Then, the survey was initially sent to some IS
experts for review and feedback and then pr-tested
with ten people located in Saudi Arabia. The
feedback in general was positive; only some
questions were rewarded to improve their clarity. An
online survey was preferred to attract interested Web
users and due to the fact that social media usage
attitudes and behaviour was the object of the study.
The participants were asked which of listed
communication and interactive tools they used,
including, SNS, instant messaging (IM), blogs,
wikis, podcast, audio and video tools, and for what
purposes. They were also asked if they know the
terms “social media and social networking sites”.
In the survey, we defined a cultural restriction as
any issue or fear related to Saudi culture that
influences their use of social media due to the fact
that culture is one of the most key factor that play
major roles in Saudis’ social and business life. As
the survey were developed to capture the perceptions
of cultural restrictions, users’ motivation,
behavioural intention and the use of social media,
participants were asked to express their level of
agreement on a five-point Likert scale ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
3.2 Measurement Scale Validation
Measurement items were developed based on
literature review or were identified from thorough
consultation with information system experts to
ensure their validity and reliability.
Data was analysed using SPSS statistical
software packages. Scale reliability test were
conducted in order to confirm the reliability of the
instruments. The final instrument includes 22 items
presented in Table 2 and 4 with a Cronbach’s alpha
(α) reliability of 0.780. This instrument includes:
seven items for capturing cultural restrictions with α
= 0.721); eight items for measuring motivation
determinants with α = 0.772 (Intrinsic: 0.766 and
extrinsic: 0.719); and 5 items for behavioural
intention determinants with α = 0.792. Each
instruments questions have an acceptable degree of
reliability; an α greater than 0.7 is often used as the
threshold for reliability (Hair, 1998). Then,
frequencies, percentage, average, ANOVA and
correlation tests were used to analyse the data.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Demographic Characteristics
Because the paper focuses on individuals’ attitudes
towards the use of social media, demographic
information was a part of the survey. Table 1 shows
the distribution of the demographic characteristics of
the respondents. Only employed respondents were
broken down into five groups (sales & marketing,
customer services, information technology, human
resources and education) based on their nature of
job, i.e. students were excluded from these groups.
4.2 The Use of Social Media
The survey shows that people in Saudi Arabia are
aware of the term social media and social
networking sites, i.e., where users can share their
thoughts and experiences and leave comments on
each others’ profiles. 80.4% were knowledgeable
with these terms and only 19.6% were not familiar.
In addition, the survey indicates that people tend to
use the sites’ brand names such as Facebook rather
than the generic term. Figure 2 presents the
awareness of these terms based on age groups.
In terms of main social media tools that are used
by Saudi society, we found that a different
combination of tools are used for both work and
social/leisure purposes. It was found that YouTube
is the most popular tool used by Saudi society for
social life with 92.3%. However, only 44.5% of
them used it for work. In terms of SNS, Facebook is
used for social, leisure purpose and for professional
purpose as well more than LinkedIn. This could be
because the aim of LinkedIn is to create professional
network rather than a social one or simply that
Facebook is more popular than other SNS.
Wikipedia and Google Docs are considered
appropriate for professional work more than for
personal and social life. This may be due to the fact
that around 43.1% of respondents were students and
WEBIST2012-8thInternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies
474

employees who are working in educational sectors.
Conversely, while Twitter is well known in Saudi
society, the percentage of people who are using this
service for professional activities was only around
40% and 62% for social purpose. A significant
number of people (more than 82%) stated that they
never used or heard about social bookmarking
services such as Digg in addition to other sites such
as MySpace and Google Wave.
Table 1: Profile of survey sample.
Respondents Characteristics Number of
respondents
(n=362)
Percentage
Age
Under 20
20 to less than 30
30 to less than 40
40 to less than 50
50 and more
47
157
105
36
17
13.0
43.4
29.0
9.9
4.7
Gender
Male
Female
218
144
60.2
39.8
Education
High school
Diploma
Bachelor’s degree
Master’s degree
Doctoral degree
70
12
152
102
26
19.3
3.3
42.0
28.2
7.2
Occupation
Employee-government firm
Employee-private firm
Self employed
Student
Unemployed
71
152
43
93
3
19.6
42.0
11.9
25.7
0.8
Department
Sales & Marketing
Customers Services
Information Technology
Human Resource
Education
Other
71
18
78
57
45
93
19.6
5.0
21.5
15.7
12.4
25.7
Figure 2: Awareness of social media and social
networking sites terms based on age groups.
Based on the responses, we found that people are
using some alternative sites and they also
emphasised that local web forums in Saudi Arabia
are widely used as social networking tools. Overall,
a person uses at least 3-4 applications from the list
provided in the survey. An adult usually uses a
variety of social media sites; it is common to have a
profile on two or three social media sites with the
main ones being Facebook and Twitter. The level of
activity on social media varied among the
respondents. Based on the participants answers, 58%
of respondents are either partially (36 %) or actively
(23%) contributing to these sites and most active
users are employees in private organizations and
students (see figure 3).
Figure 3: Users’ contribution on social media sites based
on their occupation.
4.3 Concerns and Restrictions
As Saudi society is considered as very conservative
community the survey highlights the major concerns
and restrictions of the use of social media in Saudi
Arabia which is presented in Table 2. These factors
have been considered as they tend to have direct
effect on their usage behaviour. One of the answers
emphasized the privacy issue: “I think the main issue
for most people would be privacy. I have seen
people in America (Saudis [in America]) and
Americans) talk about Facebook or Twitter as a
threat to our lives. So by time and experience people
will figure whether they will be (or not) involved in
such social/communication websites”.
4.4 Demographic Factors
In order to get a better understanding of individuals’
attitudes, behaviours and barriers of using social
media amongst the Saudi society, the effect of
several demographic factors such as gender,
education level and occupation on the use of social
media decisions were analyzed using ANOVA
9.7%
35.1%
25.1%
7.7%
2.8%
3%
8%
4%
2%
2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Less than
20 Yrs
20 to less
than 30 Yrs
30 to less
than 40 Yrs
40 to less
than 50 Yrs
50 Yrs and
more
yes
No
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
Create and
actively
contribute
Create and
partially
contribute
Comment on
other users'
contributions
ANINVESTIGATIONOFSOCIALMEDIAUSEINSAUDIARABIA
475

Table 2: Users concerned regarding using social media.
Factors
Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Restrictions around meeting
new people
90
24.9%
180
49.7%
51
14.1%
32
8.8%
9
2.5%
2.14 0.97
Restrictions around giving
out personal details
108
29.8%
198
54.7%
30
8.3%
10
2.8%
16
4.4%
1.97 0.94
Rules around meeting
people you met on Social
Media Sites in person
99
27.3%
139
38.4%
56
15.5%
33
9.1%
35
9.7%
2.35 1.242
Only add others as friends if
I know them before
144
39.8%
123
34.0%
63
17.4%
32
8.8%
0
0%
1.95 0.96
Restrictions around posting
photos
162
44.8%
132
36.5%
56
15.5%
8
2.2%
4
1.1%
1.78 .86
Restrictions around posting
video
142
39.2%
121
33.4%
77
21.3%
10
2.8%
12
3.3%
1.98 1.01
Rules in privacy settings
144
39.8%
126
34.8%
62
17.1%
27
7.5%
3
0.8%
1.95 0.97
I am not familiar with social
media tools
4
1.1%
32
8.8%
56
15.5%
201
55.5%
69
19.1%
3.83 0.88
(analysis of variance) with the level of significance
of 0.05 for all tests. The summary of the concerns
and restrictions questions and the demographic
factors along with ANOVA analysis is presented in
Table 3. According to the result, there were
significant relationships between demographic
characteristics and the use of social media.
4.4.1 Gender
Some differences were highlighted among the
Saudis in terms of their views of cultural restrictions
that may hinder them to use social media. Female
respondents were more concerned than male
respondents about meeting new people either face to
face or via social media. According to the survey,
female respondents agreed that ‘restrictions around
meeting new people’ is one of the major concerns
that may delay the social media usage among Saudis
with mean score 3.15 compared to 1.86 for men. In
terms of ‘rules around meeting people you met on
social media sites in person’, it was also perceived
differently by gender: Women (mean score 3.24)
agreed more strongly than men (mean score 2.50).
Similarly, women have more ‘restrictions around
giving out personal details’ than men. There was a
difference between male and female with mean
score 1.06 and 2.25 respectively. In addition, a great
difference was found in participants’ responses
regarding ‘only add others as friends if I know them
before’ between male (mean score 1.50) and female
(mean score 3.24).
The reasons for these differences could be due to
the fact that Saudi sociality is classified as gender
segregation community and the social and cultural
restrictions on Saudi women are more than the one
on men; male-female interaction must be strictly
limited. Interestingly, some of the male respondents,
for example, stated that “I only add to my network
and share information with people I know before”.
This could confirm that some Saudis regardless of
gender prefer to keep their relationships within
family member and friends.
Based on responding to the statement
‘restrictions around sharing photos’ and ‘restrictions
around sharing videos’, there was a significant
difference between the perception of the male (mean
scores 1.70 & 1.50) and female (mean scores 2.44 &
3.24). These results were expected in terms of
sharing personal photos and videos as Saudi society
considers publishing personal photos and videos on
these sites as a serious matter and these activities
contain several dimensions of psychological, social
and ethical issues that may lead to harm and damage
to family reputation. However, professional women
confirmed that they are using these sites to advertise
products and services or to recruit people which
required publishing some photos and videos.
However, professional women confirmed that they
are using these sites to advertise products and
services or to recruit people which required
publishing some photos and videos.
WEBIST2012-8thInternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies
476

Table 3: Influence of demographic factors on the use of social media.
Cultural Restrictions Mean SD F Significance
Gender Restrictions around meeting new
people
Male
Female
1.86
3.15
0.89
1.54
12.650 .002
Restrictions around giving out
personal details
Male
Female
1.06
2.25
0.86
1.04
8.235 .004
Rules around meeting people
you met on Social Media Sites in
person
Male
Female
2.50
3.24
1.84
1.51
3.673 .001
Only add others as friends if I
know them before
Male
Female
1.50
3.24
0.84
1.51
4.039 .000
Restrictions around posting
photos
Male
Female
1.70
2.44
0.88
1.07
5.390 .003
Restrictions around posting
video
Male
Female
1.50
3.24
0.84
1.51
19.652 .000
Education
Level
Restrictions around giving out
personal details
High School
Diploma
Bachelor
Master
Doctoral
1.51
2.08
2.07
2.11
2.04
0.76
1.17
1.02
0.92
0.45
5.396 .000
Rules in privacy settings High School
Diploma
Bachelor
Master
Doctoral
2.00
1.75
1.88
2.98
3.19
1.01
1.14
0.94
1.02
0.80
5.373 .000
The
Nature of
Responde
nts work
Only add others as friends if I
know them before
Sales & Marketing
Customer Services
IT
HR & PR
R & D
1.23
1.13
3.38
2.26
2.67
0.58
0.47
1.20
0.80
0.96
5.783 .000
Rules in privacy settings Sales & Marketing
Customer Services
IT
HR & PR
R & D
1.44
2.31
3.04
1.48
1.18
0.43
1.12
1.34
0.45
0.38
13.123 .001
I am not familiar with social
media tools
Sales & Marketing
Customer Services
IT
HR & PR
R & D
2.55
4.01
2.04
3.48
3.18
1.82
0.91
1.64
1.86
1.91
3.280 .003
4.4.2 Level of Education
In the survey result, education level did not show a
considerable influence on the perception of the use
of social media as much as the gender factor. Only
two statements were recognised as matters of
concern: ‘restrictions around giving out personal
details’ and ‘rules in privacy setting’.
However, respondents who belong to the higher
education level were slightly more in agreement that
‘restrictions around giving out personal details’
could prohibit Saudi people to use these tools than
those who belong to the high school level. One
reason behind this difference could be that social
media have attracted young people as a way to
create relationships outside their family members
and close friends. One can say that young people see
these tools as a fun and easy leisure activity so the
privacy and safety issues did not come to the top of
their mind. Also one can argue that there are shifts in
attitudes towards cultural issues in the Saudi society.
In contrast, differences among several level of
education according to mean scores, high school
(2.00), diploma (1.75), bachelor degree (1.88),
Master (2.98) and PhD (3.19) was also observed in
terms of privacy. This indicates that respondents
ANINVESTIGATIONOFSOCIALMEDIAUSEINSAUDIARABIA
477

who have a postgraduate degree would prefer to
have more control in privacy and security setting
when they use social media than others respondents.
4.4.3 The Nature of Work
In this study, most of respondents (81.2%) were
employed. The survey result indicated that there are
differences among the professions of respondents in
terms of privacy and security issue in the use of
social media. The sentence ‘only add others as
friends if I know them before’ was perceived
differently by respondents from different
departments. Respondents who are working with
clients, i.e., sales & marketing (mean score 2.27) and
customer services (2.31) were less concerned about
adding people that they did not know before to their
network, compared to those in IT and R&D. The
reasons behind such difference in perception could
be attributed to the nature of their job and tasks.
In terms of privacy setting for achieving better
understanding of respondents’ attitude, there was a
significant difference among various jobs
classification; respondent who belong to IT and
customer services agreed (mean score 3.04 and 2.31
respectively) that they would require more privacy
and security setting but respondents from other
departments agreed only to some extent.
On the other hand, professionals agreed that ‘I
am not familiar with social media tools’ is one of the
reasons make them not to use social media. A great
difference was found in familiarly with social media
usage: professionals in IT and sales & marketing
were less in agreement with the statement ‘I am not
familiar with social media tools’ with mean score
2.04 and 2.55 respectively. The reason for this could
be that most government and private enterprises
block these websites. One or respondents stated that
‘despite the benefits provided by social media, many
of firms are reluctant to use these tools’. These
differences in perception could be because Saudis
prefer to keep their face-to-face interaction.
4.5 Correlation Analysis
We argued that there are relationships between
cultural restrictions and users’ motivation,
behavioural intention and the actual use of social
media. Therefore, in order to assess whether there
are association relationships between these factors, a
correlation analysis was applied. The summary of
this analysis results is presented in Table 4. The
independent variable is cultural restrictions and the
dependent variables are user motivation, behavioural
intention and actual use.
Table 4: Correlations between cultural restrictions, users'
motivation, behavioural intention and actual use of social
media.
Dependent Variables Independent
variable
Intrinsic Motivation Cultural
Restrictions
Keeping in touch with family
members
.292
**
Keeping in touch with friends .283
**
Managing existing relationships .059
Sharing ideas, photos and video -.105
*
Extrinsic Motivation
Meeting new people .270
**
Creating new social networks .156
**
For communication and general
discussion with others
.104
*
Looking for Professional/business
networking
.039
For collaborative business work .098
Behavioural Intention
I do not have interest in using
social media tools
.404
**
I prefer to rely on face-to-face of
using social media
.459
**
I communicate with people in
other ways
.401
**
Using social media is waste of
time
.494
**
Social media use (Business
Activities)
Talking about shopping .083
Advertising and Marketing .054
Recruiting Purpose/Seeking Job .007
Public Relations .038
Knowledge Transfer .014
Engagement with customers .038
Social media use (Social
Activities)
Planning Events .028
Engaging in Social Issues -.054
Engaging in Political Issues -.014
Note: Results calculated with Pearson’s r and
significant correlations are shaded *p<.05, **p<.01
The motivation includes intrinsic and extrinsic
motivations. Cultural restrictions concern relates to
all items of intrinsic motivation except “Managing
existing relationships” item. The negative
correlation coefficients result point to the greater
WEBIST2012-8thInternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies
478

level of cultural concerns, the less likely that people
will share ideas, photo and video with other over
social media. Regarding extrinsic motivation,
cultural restrictions relate to social networking item
in terms of meeting new people (270
**
), creating
new social network (.156
**)
and communicating with
other for general discussions (.104
*
).
With regards to the influence of cultural
restrictions on the behavioural intention variable, the
coefficient values of all items are higher than other
variables. This means that culture has significant
impact on user’s behavioural intention. “Using
social media is waste of time” item has the highest
coefficient result (.494
**
) followed by “I prefer to
rely on face-to-face of using social media” (.459
**
).
The actual use of social media in Saudi society is
captured through two measures: social usage and
business usage. Unexpectedly, even though these
cultural restrictions have considerable influence on
user’s behavioural intention to use social media, no
relationships were found between cultural
restrictions and the actual use of these tools in either
social or business activities.
It could be said that the results of the correlation
test present both surprising and confusing results. As
the correlation coefficients were relatively low, it is
difficult to understand how cultural concerns
influence the use of social media in Saudi society.
However, these results can highlight some insights.
5 DISCUSSION
The growth in the use of social media websites has
encouraged individuals and enterprises to improve
their personal and business relationships in addition
to employing them in business activities such as
marketing, sales and recruitment. As more and more
people use these tools, it is important to understand
their attitudes towards usage of these technologies.
This paper investigated several significant issues
impacting users’ attitude and behaviour towards
these tools in the context of Saudi Arabia.
We found that survey respondents are well aware
of these tools and they are using them for social and
leisure purposes more than business activities. They
are using them to communicate through their PCs
and mobile phones. YouTube, Facebook, and
Twitter were the top three tools used by Saudi
society, in that order. iTunes was ranked of highest
interest, followed closely by Twitter. In terms of
professional activities, Wikipedia, Google docs and
LinkedIn websites were the most popular tools.
However, while there are factors that encourage
people to use these communication tools, some
cultural restrictions were reported, as well as, issues
related to individuals’ views towards these tools. As
individuals’ attitude and behaviour towards such a
new innovation usually has an impact on usage and
acceptance behaviour (Davis et al., 1989, Venkatesh
et al., 2003), the findings may help system designers
when designing tools or software in order to satisfy
users and allow them to have a greater control in
managing their accounts. For example, while some
participants are more open to sharing their personal
information, other make full of use of set privacy
level features and they ask for more control.
It is notable that there were significant
differences in the usage of these social media based
on the demographic factors. It is interesting to find
that in terms of gender, there exists a significant
difference between male and female. This finding is
similar to the results from previous study (Eyrich et
al., 2008, Curtis et al., 2010). For example, the male
used a greater number of social media tools and
features and they are more active than female. This
is indicative of the fact that females have more
concerns towards using social media than male
because of the social and cultural issues around the
Saudi society. A study revealed that 68% of Saudi
girls prefer to conceal their family name on their
profiles, and 32% of them have accounts in
Facebook under an alias or false name compared to
80% of Saudi boys who are members of Facebook
under their own full name (Khaddaf 2010). It is also
common for Saudi women to publish photos of their
father, brother, a cartoon, or a drawing rather than
posting photos of themselves (Khaddaf, 2010). Our
study also found that differences exist between
people with different academic levels with different
background. It is clear that demographic factors
have a strong influence on decisions regarding the
use of social media. In addition, cultural restrictions
and users’ concerns have been considered as they
tend to have direct effect on their usage behaviour.
According to the results of the correlation
statistical test, some relationships were found
between cultural restrictions, motivation,
behavioural intention and actual use. For example,
relationships were found between these restrictions
and users’ motivation to use social media in creating
social networks but not when they doing business.
We can argue that as Saudi Arabia is a very
conservative society, these restrictions could have
affects on using these tools in terms of creating
personal relationships rather than on building
business relationships. This also confirms that Saudi
culture is facing a cultural shift in regards to
ANINVESTIGATIONOFSOCIALMEDIAUSEINSAUDIARABIA
479

business and social media will create change in
Saudi society and will open new business
opportunities. Conversely, cultural restrictions have
more impact on behavioural intention than other
constructs. This could be due to the fact that Saudis
still prefer to use other ways to be in touch with their
relatives or friends or even when creating business,
such as face-to-face and through phone calls. One of
the respondents emphasised that people in Saudi
Arabia “still rely on their mobile and SMS to
communicate with others”.
Overall, the research results show that social
media could be important tools to create
relationships with others for both social and business
life. A limitation of this research is that it based only
on a survey method and the survey was limited to
the people who are currently using social media.
Another limitation of our analysis was the relatively
small size of the sample compare to the total
population of Saudi Arabia.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The paper investigated how people in Saudi Arabia
are using social media tools, as well as their attitude,
and behaviour towards them. A quantitative survey
method was used to conduct this research. We
analysed how gender, education level and
occupation impact users’ behaviour towards using
these tools. In addition to understanding the
individuals’ behaviour towards social media use, the
focus of these explorations is to discover current and
potential use of social media in terms of business
activities. As the result of this paper was based on
descriptive analyses, ANOVA and correlation tests,
future work will include a further statistical analysis
to investigate the relationships between privacy and
security concerns, and trust in social media tools and
their members and other different issues that were
examined in the survey. Furthermore, a qualitative
approach could be used to investigate and look at the
attitudes, behaviours, and wider issues that arise
from survey results. Conducting interviews with
some survey respondents may help to present rich
insights around individuals’ use of, and attitude
towards social media.
REFERENCES
Al-Saggaf, Y. 2004, The effect of Online Community on
Offline Community in Saudi Arabia. Journal of
Information Systems in Developing Countries
(EJISDC) 2, 1-16.
AlSukkar, A. & Hasan, H. 2005, Toward a model for the
acceptance of Internet banking in developing
countries. Information Technology for Development,
11, 381-398.
Arab Social Media Report 2011, Facebook Usage:Factors
and Analysis. Dubai, Dubai School of Government.
Burns, K. S. 2008, A historical Examination of the
Development of Social Media and its Application to
the Public Relations Industry. ICA Preconference.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Chui, M., Miller, A. & Roberts, R. P. 2009, Six Ways to
Make Web 2.0 Work. McKinsey Quarterly 64-73.
CITC 2010, CITC Annual Report Riyadh,
Communications and Information Technology
Commission.
Curtis, L., Edwards, C., Fraser, K. L., Gudelsky, S.,
Holmquist, J., Thornton, K. & Sweetser, K. D. 2010,
Adoption of social media for public relations by
nonprofit organizations. Public Relations Review, 36,
90-92.
Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P. & Warshaw, P. R. 1989, User
Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison
of Two Theoretical Models. Management Science, 35,
982-1003.
Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P. & Warshaw, P. R. 1992,
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation to Use Computers
in the Workplace1. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 22, 1111-1132.
Dinev, T., Xu, H. & Smith, H. J. 2009, Information
Privacy Values, Beliefs and Attitudes: An Empirical
Analysis of Web 2.0 Privacy. The Proceedings of
42nd Hawaii International Conference on System
Sciences (HICSS 42). Big Island, Hawaii.
Eyrich, N., Padman, M. L. & Sweetser, K. D. 2008, PR
practitioners’ use of social media tools and
communication technology. Public Relations Review,
34, 412-414.
Hair, J. F. 1998,Multivariate data analysis, Englewood
Cliffs, N.J. ; London, Prentice Hall.
Internet world stats 2011, Internet Usage and Population
Statistics.
Kassar, T. 2010, The top broadband speed countries in the
Arab World. Interactive Middle East.
Khaddaf, I. a. 2010, 68 Percent of Saudi Girls Drop Last
Name on Facebook. Asharq Al-Awsat
Kolbitsch, J. & Maurer, H. 2006, The Transformation of
the Web: How Emerging Communities Shape the
Information We Consume. Journal of Universal
Computer Science, 12
, 187-213.
Loch, K. D., Straub, D. W. & Kamel, S. 2008, Diffusing
the Internet in the Arab World: The Role of Social
Norms and Technological Culturation. IN Leidner, D.
E. & Kayworth, T. R. (Eds.) Global information
systems the implications of culture for IS management.
Amsterdam; London, Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Long, D. E. 2005,Culture and customs of Saudi Arabia,
Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press.
WEBIST2012-8thInternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies
480

Madden, M. 2010, Older Adults and Social Media: Social
Networking Use Among those Ages 50 and Older
Nearly Doubled Over the Past Year. Washington, D.C,
Pew Research Center.
Mayfield, A. 2006, What is Social Media? , iCrossing.
Ministry of Economy and Planning Report 2009, About
Saudi Arabia.
Morrison, C. 2010, Saudi Arabia Leads the Middle East
With High Growth in March. Inside Facebook.
Nielsen Online 2009, Global Faces and Networked Places.
A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global
Footprint.
Nielsen Online 2010, 2010 Media Industry Fact Sheet.
The Nielsen Company.
O’Murchu, I., Breslin, J. G. & Decker, S. 2004, Online
Social and Business Networking Communities. DERI
Technical Report 11/08/2004. NUI Galway, Ireland,
Digital Enterprise Research Institute.
Rodenbeck, M. & Wells, C. 2004, The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia. The New York
review of books., 51, 22.
Straub, D. W., Loch, K. D. & Hill, C. E. 2003, Transfer of
information technology to the Arab world: a test of
cultural influence modeling. Advanced topics in global
information management. IGI Publishing.
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B. & Davis, F. D.
2003, User Acceptance of Information Technology:
Toward A Unified View. MIS Quarterly, 27, 425-478.
Wu, M.-Y., Chou, H.-P., Weng, Y.-C. & Huang, Y.-H.
2008, A Study of Web 2.0 Website Usage Behavior
Using TAM 2. Asia-Pacific Services Computing
Conference, 2008. APSCC '08. IEEE.
ANINVESTIGATIONOFSOCIALMEDIAUSEINSAUDIARABIA
481