After heavily studying the psychology of Social media’s effect on Gen Z and research related insights, along with the rising concerns of privacy-related issues today in the Social-Networking industry, there has always been a gap regarding teenagers where they can use and enjoy today’s socializing platforms while maintaining their privacy needs.
Gathering is the first social-networking platform made in MENA for Gen Z. It provides an open-community space where users in the same region can gather and socialize with high-privacy features.
Led by Dr. Abdullah Najashi, Board Member and Partner at a Leading Family Office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Riyadh-based Gathering was founded in August 2021 and launched in early March 2022. The social platform is the vision of its founding team resulting from their work in the field of social-networking. The platform is supported by a strong family-office with unlimited useful resources and an exceptional engineering team that has developed leading social-networking projects exceeding 1 billion users today.
The Social-Networking industry is considered the largest tech sector in the world in terms of the number of users. According to recent statistics, the number of active Social-Networking users globally has exceeded the 5 billion-user milestone with almost 1/3 under the Gen Z audience. Regarding the MENA market, with over 150 million users, its Gen Z audience (around 45% of the population) has recorded the highest social media usage penetration in the world.
Regarding market-size revenue, the global social media market size is expected to grow from $159.68 billion in 2021 to $223.11 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.7%. By 2026, the market is expected to reach $833.50 billion at a CAGR of 39%.
With that in mind, Gathering has recorded one of the highest Launch-day numbers of registered users between other competitive Social-Networking Platforms including the big players like Facebook, Twitter, Clubhouse, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. With 4,500 registered users in the first 24 hours, and a 400% increase in its user base in less than a month, ranking 5th in the Social-Networking category in the first few hours of launch, Gathering has set itself to be the new ground-breaking Social-Networking Platform for Gen Z.
With that said, the rising penetration of mobile, tablet, and other electronics and rising data consumption will drive the social media market. An increase in sales of internet-accessible electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets led to the increased time spent on social media websites. For example, the total number of smartphone devices across the world reached 6 billion in 2020 that is eight people out of 10 owned a smartphone in 2020, eventually driving the revenues of social media companies. This increasing use of smartphones is expected to increase internet usage, hence driving the social media market.
With regards to this, Gathering is fully operating in 6 countries (mainly GCC). In the next couple of months, Gathering is planning to expand to the MENA market targeting a total of 150 million active Social-Networking users (45% under 25 Y.O). Gathering is also aiming to further develop its Artificial Intelligence features by heavily investing in its R&D research to pursue its primary purpose of solving the main concern of Social-Networking issues related to Gen Z today. Overall, Gathering is the perfect solution for issues surrounding privacy in Gen Z. The platform will help the generation look at social media in a new light while it accurately meets their needs.