A study by a Dubai-based marketing and communications agency has concluded that there are more Facebook users across the Arab-speaking world than there are newspaper readers.

Research carried out by Spot On Public Relations found that there were over 15 million people across the region who had profiles on the social networking phenomenon.

This compared favourably with the total number of newspaper copies sold in the Arab-speaking world in Arabic, English and French, which stood at just under 14 million – apparently confirming that social networking sites such as Facebook are becoming the number one way for people to communicate and read about new events and products in Dubai and beyond.

Spot On argued that the findings revealed how Facebook, Twitter and the like were starting to redefine how Arab citizens found out about new phenomena, and how they shared the new information.

It said that the largest number of Facebook users could be found in Egypt, at 3.5 million – which far outstripped the circulation of any Egyptian daily paper. Surprisingly the second biggest number could be found in Saudi Arabia, despite its severely conservative government and society.

In the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, a third of the population had a Facebook profile, according to Spot On.

The company said that online marketing firms should take note of the study and recognise the incredible potential that exists throughout the Arab-speaking world for marketing opportunities.

It suggested that companies eager to explore the online marketing potential of sites such as Facebook should consider carefully how their brand would fit in, and decide what tactics would be right for them, such as SEO-orientated marketing or the creation of a Facebook fan page.