The predominant reason for going online is to participate in social activities, the latest survey by Bayt.com and YouGov on "Internet Usage in the Middle East" showed. The survey results showed that 67 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia "spend three hours or more online every day." According to the survey results, every day 36 percent of Saudi-based respondents claim to connect with friends via email, and 33 percent of the same demographic connect with friends through social networking sites. Watching video clips and listening to music are also popular daily online activities and a very significant proportion of daily usage comes from online job hunting, with 35 percent of respondents in the Kingdom using the Internet to seek employment. In Saudi Arabia, 49 percent of survey-takers claim to use social networking websites at their place of work; the main reason for not accessing such sites while in the office are due to the employee not having time (68 percent), rather than sites being blocked (17 percent). Statistics across the region tend toward a lack in online purchases, Kingdom is no exception. There is a slight tendency for more people to order airline tickets online more than anything else. The trend across the region is for people to access political news online as opposed to business or lifestyle/leisure news; in the Kingdom 65 percent access political news, while business news and lifestyle/leisure news receive an even 51 percent each. In terms of the amount of time spent online every day, 33 percent of respondents in the Kingdom are online for less than two hours a day, while 32 percent use the internet for between 3-4 hours daily and 20 percent claim to surfing the web for more than six hours every day. Results asking survey-takers to state all social networks to which they belong proved that Facebook is the site of choice; out of all of respondents in the Kingdom, only 14 percent claimed to not have a Facebook profile. Twitter is the second most popular with 30 percent, followed by "Other" sites 22 percent (excluding Netlog (18 percent) and Hi5 (6 percent)), with LinkedIn coming in after at 20 percent. Only 10 percent claimed to have no social networking profiles at all. Facebook usage is especially high, with 62 percent logging onto the site on a daily basis, whereas only 24 percent visit Twitter every day. The majority of users in the Kingdom (a combined figure of 57 percent) will spend between 30 minutes – 3 hours a day on Facebook, with another 15 percent claiming to be signed into their account most times of the day. Twitter, on the other hand, has 27 percent of users who log in for less than 30 minutes a day, and 31 percent who log in for between 30 minutes – one hour. When it comes to online access, Google Chrome is Kingdom's browser of choice, opted for by 40 percent of respondents. Google reigns as the search engine of choice, with 98 percent preferring to use it over its peers. Hotmail is the most popular for email usage with 73 percent, followed by Yahoo! (56 percent) and Gmail (49 percent). As far as chat programs are concerned, Skype is the most popular platform in the Kingdom, with 54 percent of respondents using it; second is Windows LIVE with 46 percent, followed by Yahoo! Messenger at 45 percent and Google talk!, with 21 percent. In general, across all surveyed regions the method of choice for connecting to the Internet is via personal computer (desktop, laptop and netbook), by a majority of 96 percent. Personal computer ownership in the Kingdom is 67 percent, with 59 percent of respondents having fixed line broadband at home, and 76 percent claiming to have WiFi access. Only 24 percent of the region's respondents use a mobile or smartphone to access web content, with 5 percent opting to browse from their tablet computer.
