Internet Reaches Layman in Middle East

[Ahmed Omair <ao@akunet.org>]

Internet Reaches Layman in Middle East 

Internet Arab World gauges new trends in Internet
growth in region: surge in non-specialized users,
growth in home use, and marginal increase in
women users 


By Fawaz Jarrah, DIT Online Editor 

DUBAI: August 5, 1999 

The Internet is gaining a wider popular appeal among communities in the
Middle
East, drawing more users from lower educational backgrounds and entering
more homes than offices, according to a study by Internet Arab World (IAW)
magazine. 

In the past year and a half the number of Internet users in the region who
held
only a high-school certificate or less has dramatically increased, surging
from
17 percent to 27 percent. The increase comes entirely from new adult users
since the study showed that the percentage of users at school age remained
unchanged over the period. 

The percentage of users with only an undergraduate (bachelor) university
degree
decreased by about five points, but the group remained dominant, standing at
58.6 percent. As the total number of Internet users in the Arab world has
risen
to an estimated 1.1 million today, the population of the group should be
more
than 600,000. 

Holders of PhDs and master's degree accounted for 14.5 percent of those
surveyed, which was a drop of about five percent over 18 months. 

The study, which is based on a user profile survey conducted online for the
second time in a year and a half by the IAW Research Unit on a sample of
more than 1000 Internet users in Arab countries, also showed that an
increasing number of users were spending more time on the Internet at home
than in office. 


The new study showed that four percent of users were accessing the Web
mainly at school, college or university, and two percent used mainly Web
cafes. 

"The trend where home is becoming the primary place for Internet access and
the increasing use of the Web by the layman generally follows the same
pattern
observed in the United States. It's an indicator of the increasing
popularity of the
Internet," said Abdul Kader Kamli, editor-in-chief of Internet Arab World
and PC
Magazine Arabic. 

"Though Internet penetration in the Arab world as a whole is still limited
despite
the potentially huge market, the Internet has become part of the daily life
for
hundreds of thousands of users in the region," he said. 

The study also showed that the average age of Internet users in the Arab
world
had meanwhile increased by one year to reach 30, but remained younger than
the global average, which stands at 33 years. 

Users between the age of 21 and 35 constituted the largest age group in the
sample, accounting for 70 percent of the sample. Those between the age of 16
and 20 were almost nine percent, users at the age of 15 and below were only
one percent. User between the 36 and 45 accounted for almost 16 percent of
the sample, and those above 45 years were only 4.5 percent. The youngest
respondent was 13 years old while the oldest was 68. 

The study showed that Internet traffic in the region was highest between
10:00
pm and midnight, with 21 percent of the respondents saying it was the most
convenient time for them. Ten percent of the sample used the Internet after
midnight and nine percent used it 8:00-10:00 pm. Fifteen percent, however,
surfed the Net anytime during the day. Traffic was lowest in the early
morning
hours and throughout the afternoon. 

English was the second language at varying levels of proficiency for 88
percent
of those surveyed, followed by French. The figure, however, should not be
taken
as reflecting the pan-Arab language scene since only small numbers of the
respondents came from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon, where French
is widely spoken as a second language. 

The majority of the respondents were in Saudi Arabia; 34 percent, followed
by
Egypt; 18 percent, United Arab Emirates; 12 percent, Jordan; eight percent,
Bahrain; seven percent, and Kuwait; six percent. 

The Internet community in the Arab world remained overwhelmingly dominated
by men, with only a marginal increase in the number of women users in the
sample from 4.2 percent to six percent. However, the smaller participation
in
the survey by Arab countries with more liberal attitude towards women may be
offset in the survey by adding two or three percentage points to the
outcome. 

Professional groups included engineers in other specializations, management
or technical consultants, businessmen, marketing, advertising and sales
executives, medical professionals, journalist, accountants and students. 
-- 
--------------------------------------------
Ahmed Omair                   Internal: 3437
Technical Support (Internet Services)
The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
Tel.:  0092-21-4930051  Fax: 0092-21-4934294
Personal Voice Mail/Fax @:  718-764-5013
--------------------------------------------