Comércio eletrônico na Síria

E-commerce

Internet access

Syria’s telecommunications infrastructure is one of the least developed in the Middle East, and broadband connections are among the most difficult and expensive to acquire in the world. Because of the war, Syria’s telecommunications infrastructure is severely damaged and highly decentralised. According to the International Telecommunications Union, 34.2% of Syrians were connected to the internet in 2017. That same year, there were 2.6 fixed-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, and 12.7 mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Additionally, 51.9% of households had a computer, and 45% of them had internet access at home. In areas controlled by the regime, authorities regularly shut down internet access to prevent the dissemination of information and block several websites. Meanwhile, individuals in rebel-controlled areas often rely on Turkish mobile internet from across the border. The war has devastated telecommunications infrastructure and disconnected around two-thirds of the country from Syrian internet service providers. Internet access is regularly shut down in areas controlled by the regime and disparate rebel groups alike.

E-commerce market

The e-commerce market is virtually nonexistent in the country, and exports and imports have both significantly declined. The war has taken a dramatic toll on the country’s economy, and a great part of the country's infrastructure has been devastated. As a result of the ongoing civil war, new and often illegal businesses have sprung up. People are being charged to pass checkpoints and borders, and smugglers are meeting demand for all sorts of goods, both legal and illegal. Only an end to the ongoing conflict would make the e-commerce market slowly recover and go back to what it used to be in its pre-civil war period.

Social media

Social media usage in Syria is different from most of the countries and serves mostly the political activists in rebel-controlled areas and the citizens and journalists alike to spread information about human rights abuses and the ongoing war. Even though the Syrian government carries out extensive website bans, social media platforms are currently accessible in the country. Facebook has been available in the country since 2011, when the government lifted a four-year block on the website. YouTube also used to be banned, but is currently the most popular social media platform in Syria. The end of the social media ban raised some questions and one of the suspected reasons is that the regime unblocked the sites to track citizens’ online activities and identities. Facebook and YouTube are two of the top-three most visited websites in the country. There are no official statistics on the current number of social media users in the country. However, there is the data on the usage of various social media platforms. As of July 2018, the most popular social media networks in the country by market share were YouTube (62.57%), Facebook (32.69%), Twitter (3.16%), Pinterest (0.97%), Instagram (0.25%) and Google+ (0.17%).