Naturally selected

To say that Internet and social media usage in the Middle East and North Africa is expanding exponentially has become a truism of our time, but like the dinosaurs that failed to adapt as the ice age covered the globe, many companies’ marketing strategies now resemble bewildered cave men soon to be run over on the information highway.  So how fast is the online world changing? Well, the number of Internet users in the Middle East has increased from 3 million in 2000 to around 77 million today, of which 18 million are on Facebook, according to Internet World Stats.  In the past year alone, the number of Facebook users tripled in Algeria, doubled in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and increased 75 percent in the United Arab Emirates, according to an analysis by Omnicom Media Group (OMG). Advertisers have been among the first species to take note of the sea