From Tribe to Facebook: The Transformational Role of Social Networks
Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi
ECSSR
Dh40
Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi's new book From Tribe to Facebook promotes an intriguing discussion.
Published by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), this 165-page volume takes the accepted construct of the tribe as “a social, economic and political entity” and applies it to the digital age. It is the author’s contention that a new social system has been created by Facebook and other social media, including Twitter and LinkedIn: “Individuals have shifted from being tribal members to Facebook users.”
Al Suwaidi is well-placed to provide an informed, regional opinion on the transformational nature of such websites. As well as serving as director general of ECSSR, he is also an associate professor in political science at the UAE University in Al Ain and serves as a board member and chairman of several other academic institutions and public bodies.
Marshalling a diverse set of sources – research papers, news archives, conference notes, anecdotal evidence and statistical information – the author examines the impact that widespread internet penetration and social media usage has had on the regional landscape.
Facts tumble from his pages: of Facebook’s estimated 1.48bn users worldwide, 46.5m are to be found in the Arab world. Around a quarter of that number are located in Egypt (12.5m). The UAE boasts 3.4m Facebook users, putting it on a par with Tunisia, but behind Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Algeria.
Social media usage in the Emirates may be less by volume than some of its regional neighbours, but the UAE’s connected clan are among the most active. Al Suwaidi’s research estimates that 41.2 per cent of this country’s population are serial Facebook users, the highest proportion in the region. Likewise LinkedIn, the professional networking site, which is used by 14.8 per cent of the total population here.
But social media usage does not necessarily bring sweeping social change, as Al Suwaidi discusses in the context of the Arab Spring, which was heralded by some as a succession of digital revolutions that spread like wildfire across the region. The author disavows this notion: “Social media is no silver bullet when it comes to political change. The use of its tools – text messaging, email, photo-sharing, social networking, and the like – does not have a single preordained outcome.” Such tools quickly disseminated information, particularly across Egypt, but they did not topple regimes by themselves.
So what does the new online tribe look like? Al Suwaidi wisely pulls up short of predicting the precise shape of the future, but he does pick away at the seams of the issues that surround internet usage, not the least of which are social dysfunction, separation from reality and skewed value systems. These are the disconnects that our connected world promotes.
The author also tracks another unwanted change, the decay in the proper use of Arabic online. “A number of researchers have expressed concern that modern standard Arabic in the age of social networks could actually face the fate of Latin, which remains as a written form only, preserving its vocabulary and grammar but remaining unspoken.”
If social media provide an “outlet for the voiceless”, the matter of what language that constituency speaks in the virtual world remains unresolved.
nmarch@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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