Low Arabic Content Impacting Internet Growth

posted on: Dec 13, 2010

A lack of Arabic content on the web is impacting Internet growth in the Arab world, a Google representative said on Sunday.

Nelson Mattos, Google vice president of product management and engineering for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that although the Arab world is home to the “highest growth rate in terms of Internet users”, it has yet to realise its full potential.

In remarks during the opening of “G-Jordan Days”, Mattos said the growth rate of Internet users in the Middle East North Africa region stands at 6 per cent, compared to 3 per cent globally.

However, only 2 per cent of web content is in Arabic while Arabic-speakers account for 5 per cent of global Internet users, he pointed out.

Inaugurating the event, organised by Google with the aim of fostering innovation among Jordanian tech developers, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Marwan Juma said the government is focusing on raising awareness on Internet use and building proper infrastructure to increase access to the web.

“The right to broadband is as important as the right to water and electricity,” Juma said, underlining the government’s commitment to ensure that all citizens have online access.

The minister said the country is “close” to fulfilling the ICT strategy, which calls for Internet penetration to reach 50 per cent by the end of 2011.

According to Juma, Internet penetration in the Kingdom currently stands at around “38-39 per cent”.

Over 400 businesspeople, academicians, software developers and tech entrepreneurs took part in the opening of the three-day event, which aims to serve as an open dialogue among participants and technology and product experts and highlight new innovations in the IT field.

Mohammad Ghazal
Zawya