Short-form video content is fast emerging as the next disruptor within the digital media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, accounting currently for about 15 percent of total time spent on total media in the region, a latest research showed.
Significantly, users of short-form video contents are also higher online spenders than non-users across product categories, the variation in spend estimated to be between 40 percent and 130 percent depending on the category, the research report released on Monday by internet services consultancy RedSeer said.
“Digital media sees disruptions every five to seven years. From the search and banner phase of late 90s, the industry has seen major shifts to social media and video phase in the mid 2000s and most recently to the image phase of 2010 onwards.
“The next phase will be dominated by short-form video, a trend which began from 2016 onwards and which is here to stay,” the report said.
The report also said MENA’s media industry is expected to lean increasingly towards digital media as consumers shift 80 percent of their attention to this channel.
“Within the digital media, short-form content is the new disruptor. Already short-form content is about 15 percent of total time spent on total media in MENA,” according to the report titled ‘Short-form: The next disruption in Digital Media’.
The report also revealed that the digital media adoption in MENA is relatively high compared to other countries around the world.
Cconsumers spend 20 percent of their time on social media, industry should allocate 20 percent of their media spend to this channel.
“This is in part due to the positive digital consumption habits of consumers in the region. The positive digital consumption spans across internet penetration, social media penetration, online shopping penetration, time spent online and especially time spent on video content,” the report said.
The report said several countries in the MENA region even have very high awareness of social and conversational commerce which bridges the gap between online shopping and social media.
“And most importantly, they are using online more and more to discover new products. This makes the region conducive for the next wave of digital media growth. Digital media is expected to take 70 percent ad spend share and 80 percent time-spend share,” the report said.
According to Redseer, ad spend follows time spent in the long run.
Sandeep Ganediwalla, Dubai-based managing partner of RedSeer.
“Theoretically, that means that if consumers spend 20 percent of their time on social media, industry should allocate 20 percent of their media spend to this channel.
“In MENA, the time spent on digital media [currently] is very high, at 80 percent, up from 70 percent in 2018, while digital ad spend is 70 percent of total ad spend, up from 50 percent in 2018. This means that MENA media is currently three years behind consumers’ consumption habits and has some catching up to do,” the report said.
Commenting on the outlook of the digital media sector, Sandeep Ganediwalla, Dubai-based managing partner of RedSeer said: “What is remarkable is the exponential speed with which short-form content has taken to this region. Already, consumers spend on average 90 minutes daily watching short-form content, while time spent on social media and messaging is not much ahead at two to 2.5 hours.”
He also said the potential of short-form content is high as the purchase patterns of short-form users are conducive for the sector.
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