Snap's strategy in Saudi Arabia is no longer limited to expanding the use of its platform or attracting advertisers. Rather, it is moving toward building a path linking training to the application, and then to new jobs, projects, and companies. As part of its partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the company aims to empower more than 20,000 Saudis by 2030 in areas including augmented reality, spatial computing, digital marketing, and digital safety.
Snap does not measure the success of this goal by the number of people completing training programs only, but rather the indicators identified by its officials include obtaining certificates, applying skills in the workplace, moving to new professional roles, participating in actual projects, and creating new products, services, and companies.
This approach reveals a broader shift in Snap’s presence within the Saudi market, from a platform used by a wide audience to an attempt to build a system that brings together talent, content makers, developers, and companies around technologies such as augmented reality and spatial computing.
In an exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdullah Al-Hammadi, the company’s general manager in Saudi Arabia, says that the goal is for local talent to move from using digital tools to developing products, services, and intellectual property that can be created in the Kingdom and expanded outside of it.
It is reported that Snapchat has more than 26 million monthly active users in Saudi Arabia, many of whom open the application more than 50 times a day, making the Kingdom one of the company’s most important markets globally. But he stresses that the volume of use is not the only criterion for measuring success, but rather whether this presence is coupled with building local capabilities that can support the digital economy in the long term.
Towards building technologies
Snap believes that the next stage in Saudi Arabia must move from using digital technologies to building on top of them. Al Hammadi points out that content creators, startups, and local developers have a strong understanding of their audiences and communities, but expanding this role requires practical skills in augmented reality, spatial computing, and digital production tools.
The company links this trend to initiatives that have already begun within the Kingdom. Among them is the “Snap Maher Academy”, whose first batch included 50 participants from entities including the Saudi Tourism Authority, “Riyadh Airlines”, “stc” group, “Zain”, and the Ministry of Culture, within an accredited program that lasted four weeks and combined practical learning with application to real-life cases.
But the partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology expands this model to a larger scale, by linking skills development to the needs of Saudi institutions and actual work processes, rather than being limited to theoretical training.
20 thousand talent
Hussein Al-Hajjar, head of partnerships for the Middle East and North Africa at Snap, says that the skills gap in the Saudi market is less related to knowledge of emerging technologies, and more to the ability to apply them to real business, consumer and content challenges.
Therefore, the company does not intend to measure the impact of the programs by the number of those who registered or completed the training only, but rather the indicators that it plans to monitor include obtaining certificates, using skills in the work environment, moving to new roles, participating in live projects, and creating new companies, products or services.
Al-Hammadi continues that reaching more than 20,000 Saudi talents by 2030 represents an important milestone, but the most important criterion will be what these talents will produce after that, whether through new businesses, local innovations in augmented reality, an expansion of the content maker economy, or safer and more confident digital participation.
Three tracks within the partnership
The partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is not limited to training. The memorandum of understanding includes three main components: a center of excellence for talent development, an innovation center to support experimentation and emerging technologies, and a digital sustainability initiative focusing on safety, well-being, and responsible engagement.
Al-Hajjar added during his meeting with Asharq Al-Awsat that the Center of Excellence can provide organized paths for learning and professional development for students, graduates and workers, while the Innovation Center allows content makers, entrepreneurs and companies to test new ideas and develop emerging digital experiences. The Digital Sustainability Initiative aims to raise awareness of safety and well-being in the digital environment. Through this structure, the company seeks to build a more interconnected path from learning to application, then to job opportunities, entrepreneurship and commercial projects.
Augmented reality goes beyond advertising
Augmented reality and spatial computing occupy a pivotal position in the company's strategy, but Snap does not limit the opportunity to advertising. In the retail sector, augmented reality can be used to enable consumers to try products virtually before purchasing. In tourism, cultural sites and experiences can be transformed into more interactive environments. In sports and entertainment, immersive technologies can move audiences from watching to participating.
Al-Hammadi believes that the rapid expansion of Saudi Arabia in the sectors of destinations, entertainment, trade and technology opens a wider scope for the use of these technologies, but achieving this locally requires talents capable of developing experiences rather than simply consuming them.
The eSports World Cup is an example
The company cites its experience at the E-Sports World Cup as an example of how digital technologies can be integrated into the physical experience. Snap has combined CamKit with custom augmented reality experiences, Snap Map, and creator content, to provide multiple ways to discover, participate in, and share the event with others. According to the company, the integration of “CamKit” also allowed “Snapchat” lenses to be displayed directly on screens inside the event site, making the digital experience part of the event itself, and not just a separate layer from it. The company promises that this model can be extended to the growing schedule of events in the Kingdom across games, sports, entertainment, tourism and culture, with the possibility of linking actual locations with content, experience makers and interactive technologies.
New jobs between technology and creativity
This expansion is leading to a redrawing of some career paths, as Al-Hajjar believes that the boundaries between technical, creative and commercial jobs have become less clear. The developer of an augmented reality experience, for example, doesn't just work on the technology, but also needs to understand narrative, design, audience behavior, and the way the experience can solve a business or consumer problem.
The company places among the most promising paths the development of immersive experiences, digital content, marketing and creative technologies, in addition to opportunities for self-employment and entrepreneurship. Snap points to a growing community of Saudi lens makers, and cites Ibrahim Bona and Maha Al-Dosari as two examples of local talents who developed advanced capabilities in augmented reality and appeared in Lens Fest competitions, with these skills turning into professional opportunities through jobs, freelancing, or special creative projects.
Digital safety within the strategy
The company does not separate building digital capabilities from protecting younger users. According to Al Hammadi, users between 13 and 15 years old receive a higher level of protection, as their stories and Spotlight content are limited to mutually accepted friends instead of being distributed to a wider general audience, in addition to tightening privacy and communication settings. The “Family Center” also provides parents and caregivers with additional tools to monitor the experience of teenagers, while the partnership with the Ministry of Communications places digital safety and well-being among one of its main axes.
Snap notes that the partnership between the public and private sectors gives it the ability to transfer individual initiatives to a broader framework. The company can provide platforms, expertise, and understanding of digital behavior, while government agencies can link this to national priorities and local institutions.
Al-Hajjar states that the ultimate goal is to build a clearer path from learning to application, and from training and experimentation to actual projects, jobs, companies, and digital experiences designed for local needs.
By 2030, the test for “Snap” will be less related to the number of people entering the training halls, and more related to whether these skills will produce jobs, companies, products, augmented reality experiences, and intellectual property that originate in Saudi Arabia and can later expand outside the local market.
