Trust, Innovation and Growth: Shaping the Future of the GCC’s Digital Economy
Jenan Alhashili on how clear regulation, platform accountability and closer regional cooperation can support business growth while protecting the people who use digital services.
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Across the GCC, a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem is helping to drive the region’s digital economy forward. The UAE alone ranked as the top entrepreneurial ecosystem for the fifth consecutive year according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2025/2026 report. Across the Gulf, this momentum is already changing how people discover ideas, how entrepreneurs reach customers and how businesses grow beyond their immediate communities. As that change gathers pace, the region’s digital future will be shaped as much by policy as it is by technology. This calls for accountability from platforms, as well as clarity in the regulatory environment. It is a shared belief and responsibility that the GCC’s digital future requires strong leadership and partnerships to create an environment in which innovation is matched by trust.
That makes recent parliamentary discussions in Bahrain on the Gulf digital economy particularly timely. Bringing together representatives of legislative councils from across the GCC, the seminar explored issues ranging from legislation and technical infrastructure to investment, economic contribution and the safety of society through digital platforms. While each GCC market will continue to reflect its own laws and national priorities, people and businesses increasingly operate across borders, highlighting the value of continued regional dialogue as the GCC’s digital economy continues to evolve.
At the center of that discussion must be a simple idea: safety and economic opportunity are not competing ambitions. Trust is what allows the digital economy to grow. People engage, create, learn and shop more confidently when they feel protected, while businesses are more willing to invest when expectations are clear and consistently applied. Well-designed regulation can provide that confidence while enabling the creativity and innovation that have made digital platforms valuable to so many people in the first place.
The UAE offers a clear view of what that opportunity can look like. According to TikTok’s UAE Economic Impact Report, small and medium-sized businesses using the platform contributed AED1.1 billion to the economy and supported more than 7,000 jobs in 2024. The report also found that more than 10,000 SMBs started their businesses because of TikTok, while over 70,000 local SMBs actively advertised on the platform. These figures matter because they reflect something much more human than economic output alone: a home-based entrepreneur turning her business into a globally-known brand, as seen with Fix Dessert Chocolatier, whose daily orders went from single digits to triple digits a day after the chocolate went viral on TikTok.
This is especially relevant across a region where entrepreneurship, private-sector growth and economic diversification sit at the heart of national development plans. Digital platforms can lower some of the traditional barriers to participation by making it easier for smaller businesses to be discovered, build communities and understand what their customers want. They can also broaden who gets to participate, allowing a promising idea to find an audience without first requiring the resources and reach once needed to enter a market. That accessibility is among the digital economy’s most important and valuable strengths. As policymakers consider how best to support this opportunity, clear and proportionate rules grounded in how technology and businesses operate can help the digital economy mature responsibly while enabling businesses to grow.
Platforms must play their part. At TikTok, that means continuing to invest in technology and specialist teams to enforce our Community Guidelines, publishing transparency reports on content enforcement, and strengthening age-appropriate experiences as the needs of our community evolve. It also means engaging with local experts and stakeholders, including through TikTok’s Safety Advisory Council, to bring regional perspectives into conversations around online safety. Teen accounts have more than 50 safety, privacy and security features and settings enabled by default, while Family Pairing gives parents and guardians tools to guide their teenager’s experience, including controls related to screen time and content. No platform should regard safety as a finished task; it requires sustained investment, expert input and a willingness to keep listening.
The same principle of collaboration should shape regulation. Governments set national priorities based on the outcomes their societies need; parents, educators, civil society and safety experts understand how digital life is experienced in homes and communities; and technology companies can contribute data, technical knowledge and practical insight. Bringing these perspectives together early can support constructive dialogue and inform regulation, while helping to identify where shared regional principles could improve consistency and where flexibility is needed to respond to local contexts.
Greater GCC coordination can create shared direction around high standards for safety and accountability, while preserving the flexibility to reflect national contexts and priorities. It can also support more consistent protections for users and enough predictability for businesses of every size to innovate responsibly. The GCC has repeatedly shown that national ambition can be strengthened through regional cooperation, and the digital economy is another opportunity to put that strength to work.
The dialogue in Bahrain highlights the value of regional conversation as the digital economy evolves. Continued collaboration between governments, communities and industry can turn a shared ambition into a digital environment that people trust and in which businesses can thrive. With these ongoing efforts, the GCC will go beyond responding to the changes reshaping the global economy. It can offer a model for how a region protects its people while giving their ideas every opportunity to grow.
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Across the GCC, a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem is helping to drive the region’s digital economy forward. The UAE alone ranked as the top entrepreneurial ecosystem for the fifth consecutive year according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2025/2026 report. Across the Gulf, this momentum is already changing how people discover ideas, how entrepreneurs reach customers and how businesses grow beyond their immediate communities. As that change gathers pace, the region’s digital future will be shaped as much by policy as it is by technology. This calls for accountability from platforms, as well as clarity in the regulatory environment. It is a shared belief and responsibility that the GCC’s digital future requires strong leadership and partnerships to create an environment in which innovation is matched by trust.
That makes recent parliamentary discussions in Bahrain on the Gulf digital economy particularly timely. Bringing together representatives of legislative councils from across the GCC, the seminar explored issues ranging from legislation and technical infrastructure to investment, economic contribution and the safety of society through digital platforms. While each GCC market will continue to reflect its own laws and national priorities, people and businesses increasingly operate across borders, highlighting the value of continued regional dialogue as the GCC’s digital economy continues to evolve.
At the center of that discussion must be a simple idea: safety and economic opportunity are not competing ambitions. Trust is what allows the digital economy to grow. People engage, create, learn and shop more confidently when they feel protected, while businesses are more willing to invest when expectations are clear and consistently applied. Well-designed regulation can provide that confidence while enabling the creativity and innovation that have made digital platforms valuable to so many people in the first place.
Jenan Alhashili • Head of Public Policy, GCC, TikTok
Jenan Alhashili is the Head of Public Policy for GCC at TikTok.
