Impacts of Social Media in Restaurant Business in Saudi Arabia

This project paper explores the impacts of social media in the business of Saudi Arabian restaurants. It analyzes the vulnerability of restaurant businesses in Saudi Arabia due to social media and provides recommendations and limitations of the study project.

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Impacts of Social Media in Restaurant Business in Saudi
Arabia: A Comparison between Social Media Profiles
Author:
Abstract: This project paper attempts to explore the impacts of social media in the business of Saudi
Arabian restaurants. Undoubtedly, the modern generation is largely influenced by social media. A lot
of human activities can be associated with social media influence. Social media, therefore, affects
many businesses in the modern world. Behavioral patterns of millions of registered Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram users are largely influenced by the Internet, more specifically, social media. Despite a
lot of research covering the concept of social media use, research on the impacts of social media in the
restaurant business is inadequate. The concept of globalization has enhanced the rate of behavioral
change as internet users in distant parts of the world can influence each other by uploading posts to
social media platforms. Fashion, entertainment, and eating patterns are some of the patterns that are
highly vulnerable to social media. This research project specifically analyzed the vulnerability of
restaurant businesses in Saudi Arabia due to social media. Both quantitative and qualitative data were
collected through a survey of social media profiles for five restaurants in Saudi Arabia. The findings
from these social media profiles were related to the evidence in the literature review. Using tables and
pie charts, the data collected was effectively presented, analyzed and interpreted. Relevant
recommendations and limitations of the study project were further stipulated. The study concluded that
when utilized correctly, social media has a positive impact on the performance and profitability of
restaurant business premises in Saudi Arabia.
1.0 Introduction
Since the conception of social media, millions
of people have registered to the many social
media platforms. The increasing social media
usage may be attributed to the increasing
availability of smartphones in the market and
accessibility to the internet. In the United
States, only 8% of the American citizenry
using internet used social media platforms by
2005 (Boulianne, 2015, p. 535). At present, the
scholar asserts that almost everyone in the
country has a social media account. In Asia,
the situation is not much different. In Asia,
social media platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram attract millions of
customers who in many cases incorporate their
business practices to social media (Parveen,
Jaafar and Ainin, 2015, p. 6). A study by
Karapanos, Teixeira, and Gouveia (2016, p.
891), Facebook has about 1.2 billion active
users; Twitter has about 255 million users
while LinkedIn has about a million users. In
businesses, social media is widely used in

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business-to-consumer (B2C) companies and in
some cases, business-to-business (B2B)
companies (Jussila, Karkkainen and Aramo-
Immonen 2014, p. 607). B2C optimally utilize
social media by advertising their products and
marketing. Businesses exploit social media
networks to educate their esteemed customers
and clients on issues regarding change and
improvement of products by a business. In
many cases, businesses also share their social
media handles so as to get their customers’
feedback. To exploit the increasing
consumption of social media, large business
and medium-sized entities use social media for
the purpose of advertising, communication,
and gathering of feedback from their clients.
Recently, restaurant businesses have emerged
as one of the big beneficiaries of social media.
According to Kim, et al., (2015, p. 45), social
media is now the most utilized marketing
technique by restaurateurs. The scholars state
that in modern restaurant businesses, 80% of
the communication is done through social
media. The rationale behind the wide use of
social media in the restaurant business is the
fact that there is a low cost incurred. Other
marketing techniques may attract high costs,
which are detrimental to the profitability of
restaurants. In addition, the widespread use of
social media across the world makes it a viable
method to post adverts, market and receive
both positive and negative feedback from their
customers. Big restaurants and companies
measure their relevance in the market (Xie,
Zhang and Zhang, 2014, p. 2). To show their
relevance in the market, beverage producer
giant, Coca-Cola was the first company to
surpass the 50 million likes on Facebook
(Kohli, Suri and Kapoor, 2015, p. 8).
Moreover, there is relatively increased freedom
while advertising and marketing using social
media techniques as compared to other
marketing techniques.
1.1 Research Objectives
The main aim of this project was to determine
the impacts of social media in restaurant
businesses located in Saudi Arabia. The
findings were used to provide comparative data
on businesses with social media profiles which
could be used in establishing universal
guidelines that could be used by restaurateurs
to improve on efficiency and performance
through social media campaigns. To elevate
their efficient use of social media so as to
generate publicity, improve their brand image
and increase their revenues, reaching the
objectives could be vital.
1.2 Research Questions
To achieve the aforementioned research
objectives, answering the following questions
was critical. The research sought to
investigate:
1. How social media affected the sales and
revenues of restaurant businesses in Saudi
Arabia?
2. Did technological development make Saudi
Arabian restaurants more or less accessible in
running their businesses?

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3. What were the future trends and how should
Saudi Arabian restaurant companies have dealt
with them?
These questions were designed to help us
understand the basis of the research objective
which was to investigate the impacts of social
media in Saudi Arabian restaurant businesses.
These questions were sought to be answered
through surveys done from five restaurants’
social media profiles located in Jeddah City,
Saudi Arabia.
2.0 Literature Review
In a research project, a theoretical literature
review is important as it brings forth existing
theoretical precepts that have not been
rigorously assessed and examined (Dembek,
Singh and Bhako, 2016, p. 231). The section
purely dealt with existing scholarly evidence
concerning our topic under investigation. This
chapter discussed the many scholarly works
that have been written to discuss the impacts of
social media in the restaurant industry.
2.1 Theoretical Background
Due to the fact that most businesses use social
media only as a marketing tool, most of the
available research concerned with the impact
of social media is done from a marketing point
of view. In many cases, the research from
many surveys suggests that there is a positive
correlation between a restaurants social media
use as a marketing tool and the said firm’s
improvement in performance and value (Kim,
et al., 2015, p. 41). Despite the topic of social
media use in businesses attracting a lot of
influence in the recent years, the academic and
the business communities have mixed feelings
regarding how the effectiveness of social
media tools should be measured. The
controversial debate seems to be unending and
is getting even fiercer. Some scholars measure
the effectiveness of social by directly
comparing the firm to other business firms in
the same industry. On the other hand, some
scholars hold that analyzing the ratio of return
to investment of social media on companies
and brands has arisen as a vital aspect in
measuring the general performance of any
business organization. A balance needs to be
drawn between the expenditure on marketing
strategies using social media and the returns
brought forth by the particular investment
(Baxter, et al., 2014, p. 350). In most cases,
researchers neglect the economic impacts of
social media such as the relationship between
social media activities and the financial
performance of a firm.
The beliefs that social media is an efficient and
reliable channel to profits drive towards many
firms’ decision to engage it (Hudson, et al.,
2015, p. 69). Previous studies suggest that
marketers can gain competitive advantage by
using social media as their marketing
technique. A revelation made by Effing and
Spil, (2016, p. 5) confirmed that utilizing
social media for marketing enabled smooth
communication between business and clients
without the restriction of time. Many
businesses offer 24-hour customer service to
their clients. Apart from serving customers in a
24/7 basis, social media has enabled the

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conception of a framework which deals with
complaints and comments expressed by both
satisfied and dissatisfied clients regarding the
products a firm offers (Ryschka, et al., 2016, p.
199). This functions to help a firm develop
strategies to deal with the raised issues and
therefore the eventual improvement of the
firm.
Firms also rely on social media to know
whether they are gaining or losing customers
in the market. This can be seen from the
number of ‘likes’, ‘unlikes’ and other reactions
in the social media jargon. Moreover, when
used correctly, social media may curb the
problem of misinformation and raise brand
value. The above evidence means that if
restaurants can correctly use social media
platforms, higher financial performance is
almost inevitable. Appropriate use of social
media leads to higher profitability, burgeoning
customer bases and increased efficiency (Bilal,
Ahmed and Shehzad, 2014, p. 8).
2.1.1 Effects of Social Media Use on Financial
Performance of the Organizations
Researchers have analyzed the relationship
between social media and the financial
performance of many organizations by
analyzing social media as a marketing channel.
Schneirderjans, Cao and Schneiderjans (2013,
p. 916) examines how financial performance
can be improved by the use of social media.
Using text mining technique, the scholars
gather and analyze evidence from social media
platforms including Facebook, Twitter, blogs
and corporate websites. According to their
study, social media strategies influence a
firm’s financial performance. In their study
based from the findings from 150 publicly
traded organizations conducted between the
months of January and March, the scholars
found out that the usage of social media
techniques is very directly related with firms’
financial performance. Social media platforms
significantly boost financial performance if
any organization.
In Malaysia, Parveen, et al., (2015, p. 5)
explored the effects of social media on the
performance of organizations. Using
naturalistic and interpretative methods, the
scholars analyze the effects of social media in
different factors in their natural settings. The
scholars’ used inductive analysis to draw
themes and patterns that facilitate the general
idea that advertising and branding are
enhanced by the effective use of social media
platforms. The study also discovered that most
organizations use social media as a method of
positive word-of-mouth advertising. Existing
clients are thus re-attracted to their favorite
joints. The studies’ results prove that social
media use contributes a significant influence
on a firm’s performance and productivity. The
strength of any business organization can be
tested either through the financial strengths or
the customer service or client relations offered
by a firm. Proper financial management and
customer relations are vital to any growing
company as a company’s cost is further
reduced. Customers also access free
information. Although the research uses a large
sample to establish a relationship between

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social media and business performance, the
improvement in performance is overtly seen.
Improved performance for restaurant
performance is warranted if effective social
media use is employed.
2.1.2 Significance of Social Media on
Customer Engagement
Social media is vital in fostering and
simplifying the process of consumer
engagement between the clients and the
business enterprise (Farrok and Abeysera,
2016, p. 116). In research based on a survey,
social media was found to foster business
performance and the growth of specific brands.
In their research, the impact of Facebook pages
in businesses is directly proportional to a
firm’s productivity. The scholars further argue
that social media enhances two-way
communication between business entities and
their clients. Customer engagement is
necessary for creating influences on customers
and brand loyalty (Ashley and Tuten, 2015, p.
19). This helps a business entity in attracting
new customers and maintaining old clients.
Social media use is also very useful to a
company which believes in the need for
disseminating data. According to Floredu,
Cabiddu and Evaristo (2014, p. 737) social
media is responsible for disseminating
information in many ways, hence creating
interactivity between businesses and their
clients. According to scholars, social media
acts as the voice for customers. Technology
has made it possible for the creation of virtual
trading platforms in social media allows
companies to reach a larger market (Dijkams,
Kerkhof and Beukeboom, 2015, p. 59).
Moreover, the scholars assert that these
platforms allow customers to voice their
opinions about the firm’s products through
comments which are accessed by other
potential customers. In the case of positive
impressions and reactions, a firm is likely to
gain more customers. Negative impressions
chase customers away. Customers can,
therefore, disseminate information posted in
social media platforms. Literally, the
availability of information into social media
platforms has turned customers into
researchers (Hollebeek Glynn and Brodie,
2014, p. 150). Before making a trade,
customers research whether the information in
social media review section matches with their
preference. In case there are many positive
reactions about a product or company in the
reviewed section, the odds of customers
making their trades for the product are
increased.
2.1.3 Impact of Social Media on Corporate
Reputation
Studies have shown that there is a significant
impact of social media on a company’s
reputation. In a survey done on 3531 clients of
an international airline company, by
Dijkmans and his contemporaries analyzed the
measure of engagement of customers with the
company’s social media activities and their
view on the company’s reputation. Habibi,
Laroche and Richard (2014, p. 153) discovered
that there is a positive relationship between

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social media use among clients and their
engagement with the company. Moreover, the
speed by companies to react to what their
customers post in social media is also vital for
its repute (Sparks, So and Bradley, 2014, p.75).
In a study based on Germany and United
State’s participants, it was found that
customers’ perception of the company’s
reputation was dependent on the company’s
speed to respond to customer feedback and
inquiries in social media platforms (Ryschka,
et al., 2016, p. 207). Corporate engagement in
social media is thus seen to produce a positive
impact on a corporate body’s reputation among
the general public.
2.2 Research Gaps
In spite of social media’s widespread good
repute in profiting restaurant businesses, the
restaurant industry can be blamed to have
overlooked the impacts of social media in
marketing and performance of restaurants.
Despite the primary reason of adoption of
social media techniques being the addition of
value to a restaurant, the influence and impact
of social media techniques to the overall
performance of social media have not yet been
adequately studied. Thorough research beyond
the significance and the underlying limitations
of the usage of social media in restaurants is
required so as to establish the extent by which
social media influences the restaurant industry.
This research paper critically scrutinized the
impacts of social media on restaurants. The
scope of the research was Saudi Arabia where
5 restaurants were analyzed. The paper also
suggested some recommendations to improve
the usefulness of social media as a type for
marketing restaurant goods and services.
3.0 Research Methodology
The literature review in this paper confirmed
that there was a characteristic positive
relationship between social media use and
business’s performance. The literature review
in this research project led to the formulation
of the following alternative hypotheses.
H1: Social media has a significant impact on
the restaurant industry.
H2: Companies should invest in their social
media profiles so as to elevate their revenues.
A test of these hypotheses was done by the
conduction of surveys on five restaurant
companies namely: Nozomi, Aromi, Cheese
Cake Factory, Sakura Japanese Restaurant, and
Piatto restaurants. All these restaurants are
located in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia.
Preliminary research was done to establish
whether these five restaurants had used social
media in their marketing strategies in their
recent activities. Data was collected by
employing a cross-sectional study which
compared breakfast and branch services
offered by these companies as per the reviews
in the respective companies’ social media
profiles. In each of the five restaurants,
qualitative data regarding the restaurant’s
performance was critically examined. Google
review accounts for each of the restaurants
were highly considered. Use of surveys in
research attempts to analyze quantitative and

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qualitative approaches used by businesses in
their day-to-day activities (Ramanathan,
Subramanian and Parrott, 2017, p. 109).
Surveys based on customer reviews are also
critical for a firm as they paint the picture of
the company in the customer’s perspectives
(Buschken and Allenby, 2016, p. 956). In
examining the impact of the internet trends
such as social media, it is recommended that
survey-based data collection methods on
customer reviews should be used (Engler,
Winter and Schulz, 2015, 9. 114). It was
therefore prudent for our research to largely
employ surveys based on the online customer
reviews by customers.
Moreover, intensive face-to-face interviews
were conducted in the five aforementioned
restaurants. The face-to-face interviews were
carried as per the conventional protocol of
face-to-face interviews as described by
Mitchell (2015, p. 44). According to Risius,
Janssen and Hamm (2017) face-face-
interviews feed the researcher with genuine
information required in his or her interviews
(p. 249). Bowden and Galindo-Gonzalez
(2015) establish that other types of interviews-
such as face-to-face interviews should only be
implemented when the researcher is
incapacitated to conduct thorough face to face
interviews (p. 81). The relevance of face-to-
face interviews in research is indisputable.
Face-to-face interviews also foster the
interaction between the researcher and the
respondent interviewee (Comi, Bischof and
Eppler, 2014, p. 113). This may lead to more
genuine and authentic data from the primary
data source as the interviewee entrusts the
interviewer. In this research paper, although
the wording varied from one interview to the
other, the general guideline of the interview
was homogeneous. Topics, sequence and the
outline of the interviews were discussed prior
to the interviews.
At the end of our 3 months of research, thirty
reviews from each of the restaurants in Jeddah
had been analyzed. This translated to a total of
150 reviews over a short period. Moreover, we
had engaged 10 top staff members in friendly-
but-informative face-to-face interviews.
4.0 Data Analysis and Results
From the data revealed in our interviews and
surveys, social media is an effective tool used
in the restaurant business to promote, advertise
and brand their products. The staff in public
relations positions for the five restaurants
confirmed that social media advertisement and
customer handling are effective tools in their
branding and marketing roles. The
interviewees unanimously confirmed that
social media use is not only a marketing tool
but also a customer engagement tool. Firms
using social media platforms not only
advantage from profits but also from loyal
customers (Nisar and Whitehead, 2016, p.
744). The 10 interviewed personnel revealed
that social media had been effective in its role
to increase their number of loyal and esteemed
customers. The selected 10 staff also revealed
the impact of Facebook and Instagram
accounts to the growth of their restaurants. The
interviewees postulated that there was a

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relationship between Facebook and Instagram
‘likes’ with the sales of their restaurant’s
products. For instance, an interviewee
confessed that each time he posted a picture of
his new recipe or new meal, the number of
likes he received from Instagram would help
him speculate whether the market was ready
for the products. In most cases, less Facebook’
and ‘Instagram’ likes meant that the product
did not really appease its customers. The
human relations’ personnel would then instruct
the chef to consider reducing the number of
units produced for the product. For instance, if
a certain type of cake inspired fewer likes, the
chef would be prudent to reduce the number of
cakes produced. This would eventually reduce
costs and wastage.
From our survey, the results are systematically
analyzed, organized and displayed in the tables
and pie charts below so as to explain in detail
the impact of social media in Saudi Arabian
restaurant businesses. This research analyzed
the total stars ratings of the individual hotels,
gender of the reviewers, the prices as per the
reviewers’ opinions, the quality of food
according to the reviewer’s opinion,
cleanliness of the restaurants, quality of online
services, types of cuisine served, environment
of restaurants, and whether the specific
restaurant’s social media platform would
develop. The question of whether the
restaurants have an online website which offers
a menu, location, offers, contact, and
complaints was also analyzed.
The following tables and pie charts were used
to analyze the research data:
4.1 Gender
% 40
% 60
Gender %
Male
Female

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4.2 Environment of Restaurant
4.3
Cleanliness of Restaurants
4.4 Total Stars Ratio
% 18
% 16
% 17
% 25
% 24
Environment of
Restaurant %Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
% 19
% 21
% 22
% 23
% 15
Cleanliness of the
Restaurants % Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
Restauran
t 5
Restauran
t 4
Restauran
t 3
Restauran
t 2
Restaurant
1
30302930311. Age
2.12.12.12.12.12. Gender (ratio)
43476067533. Varity of food %
53505367474. Quality of service %
67637070535. Price %
444436. Stars (ratio)
5753538077
7. Environment of
restaurant %
7580859060
8. Cleanness of the
restaurants %

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4.5 Quality of Service
4.6 Age
4.7 Variety of Food
4.8 Prices
4.9 Social media profile will develop. (Y/N)
Menu avalable online, location, Picture, offres,
contact and complaints.
Rest
aura
nt 5
Rest
aura
nt 4
Rest
aura
nt 3
Rest
aura
nt 2
Rest
aura
nt 1
11121
Men
u
avail
able
onlin
e
(%)
22222
locat
ion
(%)
22222
Pictu
re
(%)
11221
offer
s (%)
11221
cont
act
(%)
12121
com
plain
ts
(%)
Social media profile will developY2
N1
The above results confirm the alternative
hypotheses that indeed, social media has a
significant impact on the restaurant industry.
21 %
19 %
22 %
22 %
16 %
Price %
Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
% 16
% 17
% 22
% 25
% 20
Variety of Food %
Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
30
30
29
30
31
Age Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
% 20
% 18
% 20
% 25
% 17
Quality of Service %
Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1
21%
21%
21%
21%
16%
Stars (Ratio)
Restaurant 5
Restaurant 4
Restaurant 3
Restaurant 2
Restaurant 1

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Restaurant businesses have a reason to invest
in their social media profiles to elevate their
revenues. The results are objective because
they are gotten from authentic individual
customer reviews. Moreover, the survey can be
said to be reliable as most of the reviews came
from mature individuals in their late 20s and
early thirties. The respondents are either in
marriage or in domestic relationships.
What may be considered of the utmost
importance is the fact that most of these
restaurants offer online services. Restaurant 2
for instance, provides a menu, pictures, offers,
location, contacts, and complaints online.
Restaurant 5, on the other hand, only offers its
pictures and location online. Other
Restaurants offer some of these services to
their clients but not all. Some of these
restaurants are in their process of developing
social media profiles for their clients.
Restaurant 2 is ranked with the highest star
rating and Restaurant 5 got the least. In matters
of cleanliness, quality of food and a favorable
working environment Restaurant 2 is
discovered to produce the best while
Restaurant 5 produces the poorest. The only
variable which Restaurant 5 does not trail
behind is the variable on the variety of food.
Restaurant 5 offered more variables than
Restaurants 1 and 4.
The results communicate that most of the
reviewers had a positive perception of
Restaurant 2. Many reviewers thought that
Restaurant 5 had some challenges. It is clear
that some reviewers would prefer visiting
Restaurant 2 as opposed to Restaurant 5.
5. Discussions and Conclusions
The study provides comprehensive research
concerned with elaborating how social media
affects restaurant businesses. The results
suggest that restaurants in Saudi Arabia
optimize the trends of social media as a tool
for online marketing. Social media giants
including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram act
as a hub for online marketing, branding, and
customer handling. Restaurants in Saudi
Arabia are also reputed to use social media
platforms to convince customers of the
satisfaction derived from their products. Proper
adaptation of social media is believed to boost
clients’ purchase intentions (Guesalaga, 2016,
p. 71). Social media is thus said to instigate
impulsive buying (Xiang, et al., p. 334). Kim
and Johnson (2016, p.101) believe that brands
manipulate their customers through social
media platforms such as Facebook and
Instagram. It is therefore shrewd for
restaurants to ‘manipulate their customers by
the use of social media platforms.
The research findings suggest that restaurants
that use online services such as online menus,
locations, pictures, and customer handling are
ranked higher than those offering less of these
services. Trainor et al. (2014, p. 1207) posited
that social media create positive emotions to
their users. Although the scholars’ belief may
not be scientifically proven, many social media
users are greatly influenced by the trends of the
internet. Customers may, therefore, be made to

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unconsciously purchase products that despite
them not needing them, social media worked
by making them want the goods. It is therefore
obvious that the company receiving the high
rating is due to the positive impact of social
media. Restaurants that highly use social
media to market their products are
characterized by high-quality products,
efficiency, rising profits, large revenues, and
positive customer ratings.
6. Limitations of the Study
This research project suffers from many
limitations. For instance, the causal
relationship between social media and
restaurant business performance was not
clearly drawn. Moreover, the study’s
applicability outside Saudi Arabia should only
be conducted with caution. This is because the
types of food and cuisines offered by Saudi
Arabian firms are not similar to those offered
in other parts of the globe, for instance,
Europe. Moreover, the use of pf social media
in marketing in different parts of the world is
not synonymous.
7. Conclusions
To conclude, social media use for restaurants is
an effective tool for marketing, branding and
customer care services. Restaurants are
recommended to embrace the use of social
media in their marketing strategies so as to
enjoy profitability businesses and develop
working customer relations. Moreover, the
proper use of social media platforms have been
seen to help B2C enterprises in customer
engagement and fostering trust and loyalty
between the customer and the business
enterprise. More study on the impact and
significance of social media use in restaurant
businesses is recommended. Specifically,
researchers should dig deep into the concept of
social media impacts on businesses, especially
when competitors use social media platforms
to learn about each other. In addition, the study
on social media’s impacts on restaurant
businesses should pioneer other research
studies covering the impact of social media on
other sectors such as health, tourism, and
agriculture. The study concludes by stressing
that ‘proper’ use of social media will always
lead to positive impacts in any relevant
industry.

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