Digital payment transactions in the UAE touch $18.50 billion in 2020

Dubai: The total value of digital payment transactions in the UAE during 2020 reached $18.50 billion and indicated that the average time an individual spends on the Internet in the UAE is 7 hours and 24 minutes a day, according to data insights by the World Digital Report 202.

The report published by We Are Social and Hoot suite sheds light on the digital lifestyle in the UAE, based on group data that monitored individuals and companies’ behavior during the year 2020.

High internet use

The report showed that an individual spends 40 hours per week browsing the Internet via a Smartphone, while 86 per cent of the population plays electronic games via the Internet using available devices.

The report has also indicated that the UAE residents spent 320 million hours on Smartphone applications during 2020 and the number of smart homes in the country has reached 190,000.

“The emergency faced by the world last year, has made 2020, a digital year of excellence, as websites, social media pages, portals and smart sites thrived. They were the only means for the world’s population to pursue their lives, work and education, said Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, Head of the Digital Government of the UAE government

The communications and information technology sector’s overall infrastructure has been a decisive factor in enabling many sectors of society to maintain the continuity of various aspects of everyday life like work, education, and shopping. Most importantly, the period has proved that digital transformation is an urgent necessity and not a technical luxury.

Digital penetration

According to the report, 99 per cent of the Emirati community members are active on social media, and 97.6 per cent of the population owned Smartphones. While 9.3 per cent of the population owned smart devices in their homes, 5.2 per cent use augmented virtual reality technologies.

The report also stated that the high internet speeds in the UAE contributed to enhancing the digital presence of the various members of society. The average internet speed on Smartphones reached 177.52 megabytes per second, an increase of 104.6 per cen from the year 2019, while the fixed internet speed reached 131 megabytes per second, a rise of 44.6 per cent from 2019.

The report also mentioned that Google ranked first as a search engine in terms of the number of visitors with a total of 244 million visits, while YouTube ranked first at 87.4 per cent as the most widely used social media platform.