Why do you need to start creating Arabic content?
Arabic Language has become one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, as it has become one of the sixth official languages of the United Nations. According to the latest statistics of Internet World Stats, Arabic language is ranked fourth among the 10 most used languages on the Internet as of March 31, 2020. Today, more than 237 million internet users are Arabic speakers, which means it has increased from 2000 to 2020 by 9.34%. However, with all the previous numbers and statistics, The Arabic content penetration on the internet is around 5% with low quality. As one of the main sources of Arabic content on the internet is “translation”. Unfortunately, automatic translation platforms are not very accurate, and in many cases, they cannot convey the original meanings intended for the content. As a result, Arabic speaking internet users struggle to find correct and useful content in their native language. So, we do still need more diverse and high-quality Arabic content.
We believe that these numbers should be sufficient to make the companies and institutions rethink about using the Arabic language to make their marketing content on the Internet and social media platforms. If you are still not convinced, read this article for more information about why you need to start creating Arabic content.
First: Arabic language is known for its richness
At a time when the number of the French language’s vocabulary does not exceed 150,000, the Russian language 130,000, and the English Language 600,000, the number of Arabic vocabulary without repetition has reached more than 12 million words, which means 25 times the number of English vocabulary. These numbers reflect how the experience of producing Arabic content differs from other languages, as it carries several terms that can be used to market your products and services and use words to reach people in an attractive and different way.
Second: Number of Arabs using social media platforms
Arabic speakers have a prominent presence on social media platforms. According to the latest GSMA statistics, the use of social media platforms in the MENA region since 2014 more than doubled by 44%.
And according to the “Social Media in the Middle East: 2019 in review” report
ِAlso it shows that half of Arab youth said they get news on Facebook daily ahead of other channels, such as online portals (39%), television (34%) and newspapers (4%).
The State of Social Media report indicated in the MENA Region, 2018 by Crowd Analyzer states that the majority of users in Egypt, Jordan, and KSA used Arabic to publish their content and tweets about Fintech services. Meanwhile, 81% of activities in the UAE were published in English. And according to Social Media Insights for Ecommerce Companies in the Middle East from the same report, Arabic dominated the content of all countries, except UAE which had 59% of its e-commerce content published in English.
All the previous numbers and statistics shows that companies and organizations must start creating Arabic content, especially if they want to reach the largest possible segment of their target audience. And they should remember that Arab users prefer to communicate and use Arabic language to find the products and services they need.
Third: The State of Online Payment Methods and Ecommerce in the Middle East
The volume of online payments in the Arab world is estimated to reach US$69 billion by 2020. UAE has the highest consumer acceptance of 71% to pay online by country followed by KSA 58%, according to Go-gulf this indicates the huge number of people who use E-commerce platforms in the Arab world and the Middle East. Which encourages you as an E-commerce business to start creating the content of your products and company in Arabic.
Related article: What is eCommerce? How to setup an eCommerce website
Tips for creating catchy Arabic content
After clarifying the necessity of making Arabic content, it is necessary to provide some advice that may help you in creating attractive content and materials for the Arab world.
- Write based on SEO techniques: You should choose the right words and write according to the SEO techniques, especially with the diversity and the large number of Arabic terms. You will also need to know what the Arab user is searching for on the Internet, which is a relative matter that varies from one country to another and from one user to another.
Related article: Importance of SEO: 8 reasons to start optimizing your website
- Analyze the market and the targeted users deeply before writing: Search for the prevailing trends and tendencies to benefit from them and write about them. Also remember that each society in the Arab countries has specific values and customs that are different from the other. And before absorbing the details of each society you will not be able to gain the satisfaction of the Arab user.
- Arabic typesetting: Creating a clean and legible site is just as important in Arabic as it is in English. Make sure to write with a clear and strong language, without typos and according to the Arabic grammar rules.
- Publish various types of content: publish various information that helps people in the Arab region to find and choose your product in a correct and convincing manner. Then, be active and try to publish interactive content in which you can engage the audience to share their opinion and ideas via different means and tools.
- Stay away from repetition and be creative: create new tools and methods to reach the Arab user who gains interest in direct, creative, attractive and correct content.
And now, you are ready to think seriously and start working on creating distinctive Arabic content that will help you succeed in reaching more Arabic speaking customers.
