News

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

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.