Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, one of the three chambers operating under Dubai Chambers, has organised a high-level workshop for representatives of leading social media companies to discuss the challenges faced by the social media industry and ways to ensure current government policies, initiatives and strategies promote innovation and business friendliness in this critical sector.

Held at the Dubai Chambers headquarters, the workshop is the second in a series launched recently by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy to bring together industry leaders to connect and share insights into current and future trends impacting a specific sector in addition to the various ways of support the Chamber offers to foster partnerships and solutions that drive the private sector’s growth in the digital era.

In his opening remarks, H.E. Ahmed Bin Byat, Vice Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, stressed the Chamber’s commitment to supporting forward-thinking businesses and entrepreneurs to fully harness the benefits of social media and all aspects of the growing digital economy.

“Social media continues to drive global growth by creating new jobs and expanding access to information. This vital sector has not only benefited big business but is also a boon to small and medium enterprises. It can be used as a tool to facilitate open innovation and user collaboration at the different stages of the innovation funnel,” said His Excellency.

Bin Byat added that the digital industry workshop series are an important platform to maintain two-way communications with members and industry leaders to promote growth and policy innovation in Dubai’s social media and digital ecosystem. He said: “Connecting with and hearing from social media executives and decision makers is critical to promoting collaboration and partnerships while identifying best practices for an industry-level social media innovation framework.”

Attendees at the workshop discussed the importance of hiring skilled and competent professionals, calling for expanding investment in the education system, offering vocational training opportunities for graduates to gain the needed expertise, providing legal support and guidance for companies operating in this field, creating more digital training opportunities, and enhancing access to financing and to data from the sector.

The UAE has the world’s highest social media utilization rate relative to its population, according to the “UAE Digital Lifestyle Report 2022”.

The study — issued by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority — suggests the country has a usage rate of 106 per cent and is the only place in the world to top 100 per cent. UAE residents, on average, spend a longer time on social media daily than any other users on the planet who are on social media, which online consumer data firm Statista estimates at 147 minutes a day.

The digital lifestyle report suggest UAE citizens spend an average of 4.35 hours on social media each day, ranking them 12th globally. They also spend more than 8.3 hours a day online, making them the 10th most active globally. The worldwide average is just under 6.6 hours.