Abstract

Both previous studies and PSP indicate the proportion increasing of active users via social media platforms to the total population of countries, which is called penetration. A research gap is noticed in previous studies about testing the validity of penetration rates, especially which has high foreign residents such as Saudi Arabia, in addition to the lack of in-depth studies exploring key factors of preferring among its original citizens. Therefore, current study aims to measure the actual extent and impact-factors of penetrating Saudi-citizens community by Facebook. This paper belongs to both quantitative and qualitative studies, in terms of its reliance on quantitative analysis in testing the accuracy of penetration estimates, beside the qualitative analysis of preferring factors among active users. The research community is represented in Saudi citizens only, because as nearly a third of the Saudi population are non-Saudis who use their accounts inside KSA, which may lead to inaccuracy of penetration. The research data were collected from random sample with a total of 846 participants included various categories of gender, age, and education. Followed methodology based on a random survey using an e-questionnaire that was published via open link after testing its validity and reliability. SPSS application was used to analyze collected data and test research hypotheses, which leaded to a set of results and recommendations that are expected to provide academics and practitioners with significant contributions, and proposed topics for future research.

Key words: marketing, social media, Saudi Arabia, Facebook, penetration.