Saudi Arabia leads Pokemon GO social media buzz in GCC

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Saudi Arabia leads Pokemon GO social media buzz in GCC
Kuwait is third in the GCC with regards to social media chatter on Pokemon GO.

Dubai - Analysis can help Niantic determine where to launch app next

By Alvin R. Cabral

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Published: Thu 11 Aug 2016, 5:46 PM

Last updated: Thu 11 Aug 2016, 8:23 PM

Pokemon GO hasn't even been officially released in the GCC, but it's catching all the attention, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
A report on Thursday by Meltwater revealed that the widely-popular augmented reality app has already become viral, specifically on social media.

Saudi Arabia holds a commanding lead with 51 per cent, followed by the UAE's 25 per cent.
Next are Kuwait with 10 per cent, Qatar and Bahrain with five per cent each and Oman with four per cent.
Meltwater's analysis on social media comments shows that the highest amount of conversations - 58.7 per cent - happened on Twitter; it peaked at 13.9 per cent in mid-July.
And Adele Coelho, Meltwater India's head of marketing, has some nice words of encouragement for Niantic Labs, the company who plunged us into Pokemania.
"This is an example of the power of analysing social media conversations at scale. In this case, Niantic can dig into which countries have the most positive social media buzz around Pokemon GO and decide where to launch next.
But, yes, the scale of users does matter here. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the GCC's largest and most populous, so it's no surprise that they're the leaders in this study.
Two takeaways: One, if you want the app officially in your turf, make some noise on social media; two, hope that Niantic reads this and gets wind of your noise.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com


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