The research paper, entitled “How Qatar uses WhatsApp, Snapchat and other social networks” provides an insight 
into how people are utilising online media to communicate, as well as giving indications of some of their preferences.
After interviewing 1,000 online users in Qatar (500 Qatari and 500 non-Qatari) between September and October 2014, the study found that WhatsApp is the most popular of the platforms used, with 96% awareness and 87% usage across the board which rises to 98% and 97% respectively for Qataris.
In contrast, only 44% of Qataris opt to use Facebook, while 84% of non-Qataris use the platform. The key driver of usage for social platforms was mobile-friendliness, with 50% of all social media users describing it as such.
The survey also provides information about the preferences of different age groups in Qatar and their likelihood to adopt certain media platforms over others, as well as gender disparities and similarities.
While 52% of non-Qataris use Facebook as a source of news, this figure stands at only 12% for Qataris. It seems that Qataris prefer to use other platforms such as WhatsApp (34%) and Twitter (25%), with 10% even stating that they receive news from Instagram compared to non-Qataris, which stood at 21%, 12% and 5% for these respective platforms.
