Social Networking, 2015, 4, 23-32 Published Online April 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/sn http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/sn.2015.42003 How to cite this paper: Reyaee, S. and Ahmed, A. (2015) Growth Pattern of Social Media Usage in Arab Gulf States: An Analytical Study. Social Networking, 4, 23-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/sn.2015.42003 Growth Pattern of Social Media Usage in Arab Gulf States: An Analytical Study Sulaiman Reyaee 1 , Aquil Ahmed 2 1 Department of Information Studies, Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences, Al-Imam Muhammed Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 Deanship of Library Affairs, Al-Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia Email: reyaee@ju.edu.sa , aahmed2006@gmail.com Received 13 March 2015; accepted 2 April 2015; published 14 April 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract The impact of SNSs is tremendous on every aspect of life and people irrespective of region, gender and age are using it to get connected with their families and friends around the globe. This study aims to highlight the highly used SNSs across the Arab Gulf States comprising Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The database of Stat Counter (http://gs.statcounter.com ) was selected for tracing the use and growth of SNSs in this region. The findings show that the three most used SNSs in the Arab Gulf region are: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It is observed that Facebook is the leading social networking site used in the region until now, but Twitter is fast gaining market. Twitter is becoming popular among users and giving a tough competition to Facebook in almost all countries of the region except Iraq. In 2013, it has moved to 1st position in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, replacing Facebook. However, in some coun- tries like the UAE and Qatar, Facebook is still going strong. The paper concludes that the intensive use of social media among citizens’ of the Arab Gulf countries indicates that the internet has the potential to be a multivocal platform through which every segment of the society can have their voices heard. With limited availability of published literature in the field pertaining to the usage of social media by the people of the Arab Gulf countries, the paper aims to understand the practice, implication and importance of social media networks in this Muslim dominated region. Keywords Social Networks, Social Media, Facebook, Higher Education, Saudi Arabia 1. Introduction The internet has revolutionized the economy and above all our society. It has become a natural, background part