A new Arabic financial website (www.nuqudy.com) reported on Tuesday that the total number of Web users in the Arab world is estimated at about 75 million users by the end of July 2010. However, it said the actual number of Internet surfers in the Arab countries is much higher in the case the users of the Web via mobile phones in this region are taken into account.
The report claimed that in some countries the internet penetration rate is low but the cellular penetration rate is close to 100%. For example, the Internet penetration rate in Algeria is put at about 15%, while the penetration rate of mobile phones in this country is over 100%.
The United Arab Emirates boasts the highest penetration of the Internet in the Arab world with 76%. However, most of the users in this country are expats. Bahrain and Qatar are ranked second and third respectively with penetration rate of 56% and 53%.
Egypt is leading the Arab world in terms of Internet users with 17.5 million. There are 11 million users in Morocco and 8.5 million in Saudi Arabia.
The report highlighted the lack of quantity and quality of Arabic content in the Internet. Addressing this issue will require the introduction of broadband infrastructure, it added. It is worth mentioning that "Google" is now making strenuous efforts in the field of training in a bid to increase the amount of Internet content in Arabic.
