Facts & Figures:
- KSA is the largest economy in the region, representing 25% of GDP of the Middle East and 18th largest economy in the world.
- 50% of its 34m population is under 25 and internet consumption is very high, 68% of the total population are active social media users. The reason behind the high number of active social media users is due to the high rate of smartphone ownership.
- The most visited social media sites are YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, at the top of the list YouTube at 24m and the least visited was Instagram at 20m for users in 2019.
- There are 3 mobile operators – Mobily, STC and Zain and 2 MVNOs. In 2018 there were 28.4m pre-paid accounts. There were 12.9m post-paid SIMs, up from 6.8m in 2014. All operators have high speed LTE networks.
Flows & Rules:
- OTP flows are the norm in KSA. There are approximately 20 CPs operating in KSA with Arabic, English and Urdu language services. Games are the most common genre, followed by videos.
- All three operators go through a strict approval process before being allowed to operate
- A typical VAS price point 0.66 SAR (0.15€) billed daily, but there is some diversity with monthly premium video services at 35 SAR (8€).
- Most VAS landing pages are hosted by the aggregators with some exceptions for compliant merchants who can host their own landing pages additionally the merchants must clearly show the 15% vat charge.