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Facebook Has Surveyed People About Their Ramadan Shopping & Media Habits

Published

5 years ago

April 1, 2021

facebook has surveyed people about their ramadan shopping and media habits

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Eager to learn more about the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on the shopping and media consumption habits of people during Ramadan, Facebook’s insights and research division, called Facebook IQ, and analytics firm YouGov published a marketing guide called Ramadan: This is the Joy of Discovery, which features key insights from their survey.

The survey was conducted between May 23 and June 13, 2020, and it included 17,758 participants. “Approximately 1,500 interviews were completed in 11 countries, with samples that were representative of the adult online population across age, gender and region in each market,” write Facebook IQ and YouGov in their marketing guide. “For the global average data cuts in this guide, we focused our analysis on the eight markets where Ramadan is celebrated by the majority of the population.”

Facebook

The most important insight is that the pandemic has fundamentally changed how people shop. Among those surveyed, 42 percent are planning to spend less time shopping in stores during Ramadan, choosing to shop online using their mobile devices instead. This is a major opportunity for marketers, who need to offer a seamless experience throughout the purchase journey to increase their conversion rates and sales.

During Ramadan, nearly half of all survey participants agreed that they spend more time on their mobile devices, and 8 in 10 said that they don’t put their smartphones and tablets down even while watching TV, including members of Gen X and Baby Boomers. One of their favorite activities around Ramadan is discovering shopping ideas, researching things to buy, and, of course, purchasing items.

Also Read: Microsoft Wants To Purchase Discord And We Know Why

The first shopping peak happens just before Ramadan, in mid-April, and the second shopping peak coincides with the start of Eid. Even though 39 percent of shoppers start planning their purchases about a month before celebrations start, only 20 percent have completed shopping when Ramadan begins.

For more insights like these, read the full marketing guide, which Facebook kindly published on its website.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.