84 percent of people surveyed in Saudi Arabia and 83 percent in the UAE say adverts on YouTube are personally relevant to them 80 percent of those polled in the Middle East and North Africa say they are happy to watch ads to support the creators of content they enjoy DUBAI: Viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE prefer YouTube as a video-streaming platform because it allows them to access short- and long-form content in one place, a survey found. Research commissioned by YouTube parent company Google, and carried out by Kantar and MTM in 2023, also revealed that 84 percent of those surveyed in Saudi Arabia and 83 percent in the UAE found adverts in YouTube videos to be personally relevant to them. More than 83 percent in both countries believed the advertising on the platform was trustworthy. Most YouTube viewers did not seem to mind having to watch ads, with 80 percent of those polled in the Middle East and North Africa region saying they were happy to do so to support the creators of content they enjoy. More than half (53 percent) of MENA viewers said YouTube enables them to find the exact content they want at any given time, which ranked the platform first among its rivals in this regard, and significantly higher than traditional TV. “We want to make sure that YouTube is the best video-streaming platform … a place where our community of creators, advertisers and partners in the Middle East & North Africa can thrive and engage,” Tarek Amin, YouTube’s director in MENA, told Arab News. “This is why we invest heavily in technologies and tools that serve them, including AI-powered advertising tools to reach the most relevant audience, and insights to help creators grow their business on YouTube.”