RIYADH — The use of the Internet by establishments in Saudi Arabia has reached 96.1% in 2022, the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) revealed. According to the results of the 2022 Survey of Information and Communication Technology Access and Usage by Establishments issued by GASTAT, it stated that the economic activities of the establishments that use Internet the most was the information and communication activities — by 98.9%. As for the second most use of economic activities was in the education activities by 98.6%, followed by the manufacturing industries by 97.6%. GASTAT said that the percentage of establishments that allocated a fixed phone to carry out their economic activity is 58.7%, while there are 76.0% establishments that use a mobile phone to carry out the activity. The percentage of establishments that use computers is 94.6%, GASTAT said, adding that the establishments which trained workers on computer programs and applications amounted to 67.8% from the total establishments that used computers. The establishments that use computers the most, according to economic activities, are the establishments of activities in the field of education by 99.7%, then the financial and insurance activities, and health and social work activities with equal percentages, both by 98.9%. The report indicated that 45.6% of the establishments have a website on the World Wide Web, out of the total number of establishments that use the internet. The financial and insurance activities have the highest percentage among the economic activities that have a website, by 87.6%, then the education activities 68.5%, and professional activities 58.7%. As for establishments that have an account on social media platforms, the report revealed that the percentage of companies reached 52.6%, noting that the education establishments come at the forefront of establishments that have an account on social media platforms with a percentage of 89.3%, then healthcare and social work activities with a percentage of 81.6%, followed by arts and entertainment activities by 74.7%. The results of the survey also showed that 69.4% of the establishments have an Intranet, indicating that the financial and insurance activities are the most using of the Intranet at a rate of 92.7%, followed by construction activities at 84.5%, then the healthcare and social work activities at a rate of 83.7%. Moreover, it was found that the establishments that have a local network (LAN) amounted to 68.8%. The finance and insurance activities come first as the highest users of LAN network by 87%, then the healthcare and social work activities by 83.9%, while the education activities use the LAN network by 83.4%. GASTAT said in its report that 34.5% of the establishments used cloud computing for financial or accounting software apps. The percentage of establishments using cloud-based email services is 31.2%. The usage of cloud computing for ready-made office software reached 28.5%, the report revealed, noting that the usage of cloud computing services for file storage by establishments recorded at 27.4%.
