A report produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the value of online retail sales in the UK rose from £169.3 million per week in November 2006 to £446.1 million in July 2010, and by July 2010 online sales made up 8% of the country's retails sales.

A recent survey confirmed the growing popularity of Facebook in the Arab world, revealing that there are more Facebook users than newspaper readers in the region. 

According to the research, by Dubai-based Spot On Public Relations agency, there are more than 15 million subscribers to Facebook in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) while the total number of newspaper copies in the region is just under 14 million.