Nearly 29 percent of social media users in Saudi Arabia deleted at least one app in the past year, according to Deloitte's Digital Consumer Trends 2026 report, with excessive time consumption, dull content, too many ads, and inappropriate material cited as primary reasons. This behavior signals a shift toward digital maturity rather than outright rejection of platforms, as users become more selective about their online engagement.
Growing Support for Age Restrictions
The Deloitte survey found that 41 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia believe social media access should be limited to those aged 16 and above, with support rising to 66 percent among Gen Z. Emmanuel Durou, partner and TMT leader at Deloitte Middle East, told Arab News: "This points us towards a 'cost–benefit' view among young Saudis, wherein they value social media, use it heavily, but also believe that the 'timing' and 'guardrails' are important, especially for younger teens." He added that even heavy users may recognize the environment is "engineered to be addictive."
Policy Debates in the Region
The discussion around children's access to social media has gained visibility following recent measures in the UAE and Turkiye. The UAE's new law prohibits platforms from offering services to children under 15 and imposes obligations on platforms, regulators, and caregivers. Durou noted that "age bans are easy to announce but hard to enforce without intrusive verifications and workarounds." He emphasized that social media is now economically and socially embedded through small-business marketing, social commerce, community building, and events, making blanket restrictions difficult to justify.
Signs of Platform Fatigue
Globally, social media advertising revenue reached $234.34 billion in 2026, according to Research and Markets. Yet users are showing fatigue: a Financial Times study found that adults aged 16 and older in developed markets spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms at the end of 2024, down nearly 10 percent from 2022. The decline is led by teens and 20-somethings. Durou described the app deletion trend as "a strong signal of oversaturation, but not necessarily a sign of social media decline," attributing it to "portfolio rationalization" as users concentrate their attention on fewer platforms.
Shift in Digital Subscription Behavior
Deloitte's data also shows that paid digital subscriptions in Saudi Arabia are growing only in categories like sports and cloud storage, indicating that users define value in outcome-based terms rather than paying for broad access. "Users will pay when a service is clearly essential, hard to substitute, or reliably used," Durou said. This trend aligns with the Kingdom's expanding telecom-content bundles, where entertainment is increasingly packaged into mobile and home-internet plans.
High GenAI Adoption but Workplace Gap
GenAI adoption in Saudi Arabia surged to 66 percent over the past year, slightly above the UK in comparable samples. However, workplace adoption remains limited: only 35 percent of employees feel encouraged by their companies to use GenAI at work, while 60 percent of Millennials worry that GenAI will reduce jobs, particularly in mid-career roles. Durou noted that "national strategies can set the direction and the funding, but most organizations still need to translate that into approved use cases, redesigned processes, new KPIs, and governance." He urged moving beyond fears of mass unemployment toward how AI can support job growth by making services faster and cheaper.
Deloitte's Investment in Saudi Arabia
Deloitte opened the Middle East's first Deloitte Digital Center in Riyadh in 2019 and expanded with a new regional headquarters at KAFD in 2023. Saudi Arabia hosts the largest share of its regional workforce and remains central to its growth strategy, particularly for cloud and AI expansion.
Outlook: Digital Maturity and Evolving Platforms
Durou concluded that users' attention is becoming "more concentrated, more intentional, and more expensive," requiring the ad-funded model to evolve toward better ad frequency, contextual targeting, and stronger storytelling. He expects AI to become the interface layer for discovery and services, while platforms compete on trust, safety, controls, and less intrusive monetization. The broader trend points to a shift from heavy usage toward digital maturity as users become more conscious of where they spend their time and money.
