News

Google Pay To Arrive In Saudi Arabia In 2025

The debut aligns with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and supports the country’s push towards a cashless economy and rapid digital growth.

Published

1 year ago

January 20, 2025

Nour Nasir

google pay to arrive in saudi arabia in 2025

Google Pay will officially debut in Saudi Arabia in 2025, thanks to a new agreement between the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and Google. The digital wallet will seamlessly integrate with mada, the Kingdom’s national payment network.

This move ties into SAMA’s broader push to enhance Saudi Arabia’s digital payments landscape, a cornerstone of Vision 2030 — an ambitious initiative aimed at reducing the economy’s reliance on oil. By introducing secure, world-class digital payment systems, the central bank aims to lower cash usage and build a more robust digital payments infrastructure.

Once launched, Google Pay will offer Saudi users a streamlined way to shop in-store, online, and through apps, while also letting them manage their cards via Google Wallet. The growing popularity of card payments in the Kingdom reflects the government’s ongoing efforts to encourage a cashless society through advanced electronic payment solutions.

Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious target of reaching 70% non-cash transactions by 2030, with programs like SARIE playing a vital role in this transformation. Such initiatives, backed by government support and private partnerships, are helping drive the Kingdom toward greater adoption of digital payments.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

The country’s digital payments market is projected to grow by 6.96% annually from 2025 to 2028, reaching $87.14 billion by 2028, according to Statista.

Progress is already evident: SAMA reports that by 2023, 70% of all retail consumer payments were made electronically, a jump from 62% in 2022. This milestone also serves as a key performance indicator (KPI) for the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), which aims to modernize the Kingdom’s financial system.

Related Topics:FinTech Google Google Pay Saudi Arabia

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YouTube Rolls Out Supervised Children’s Accounts Across MENA

An industry-first feed timer lets parents cap Shorts scrolling. Access can also be switched off entirely ahead of exam season.

Published

12 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Dana Saadeh

YouTube

YouTube has launched supervised kid accounts across the Middle East and North Africa, giving parents a way to hand their children the main YouTube app without handing over all of it. Announced in Dubai on July 2, the accounts are built directly into the platform rather than the standalone YouTube Kids app, and are aimed at families who feel a child has outgrown the curated library but isn’t ready for the open feed.

Parents can choose from three content settings, each broadly aligned with international content ratings. Explore covers educational videos, tutorials, arts and crafts, and dance. Explore More adds gaming and live streams. Most of YouTube opens up almost everything except videos rated 18+ or deemed inappropriate for supervised accounts.

The standout tool is an industry-first Shorts feed timer, which lets parents set daily limits on short-form scrolling. Set it to zero and Shorts disappears altogether – a lever YouTube suggests parents might pull ahead of exam season. Other protections are on by default for all users under 18: “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” reminders, no personalized ad targeting, autoplay switched off, and no ability to upload videos or write comments. The accounts are optional, and parents can end supervision at any time.

The kid accounts join supervised teen accounts already available across the region, which notify parents by email when a teenager uploads a video or starts a live stream.

“YouTube has been a huge part of families’ lives across this region for over 20 years,” said Javid Aslanov, head of YouTube Middle East and North Africa, citing Kantar research showing 95% of viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE agree YouTube has top content in education and learning.

Also Read: Tamper With The Recording LED & Meta’s Glasses Kill Camera

“It’s essential that we protect young people in – not from – the digital world,” added Garth Graham, YouTube’s head of health.

The new settings are rolling out gradually across the MENA, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Iraq. The latest features can be set up through Family Center in the YouTube app or via Google Family Link.