A recent report by Nielsen Online revealed the Internet penetration numbers in the Arab region. The numbers are an eye opener on who the heavyweights in the region are, and where Arab startups (or international companies targetting the region) should be investing.
(The report defined an Internet user one that accessed the Internet once at least in the last 30 days.)
| Rank | Country | Internet users | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egypt | 17,060,000 | 21.2% |
| 2 | Morocco | 10,442,500 | 33% |
| 3 | Saudi Arabia | 9,800,000 | 38% |
| 4 | Algeria | 4,700,000 | 13.6% |
| 5 | Sudan | 4,200,000 | 10% |
| 6 | Syria | 3,935,500 | 17.7% |
| 7 | United Arab Emirates | 3,777,900 | 75% |
| 8 | Tunisia | 3,600,000 | 34% |
| 9 | Jordan | 1,741,900 | 24.2% |
| 10 | Oman | 1,236,700 | 41% |
| 11 | Kuwait | 1,100,000 | 39.4% |
| 12 | Lebanon | 1,000,000 | 24.2% |
| 13 | Bahrain | 649,300 | 88% |
| 14 | Qatar | 436,000 | 51.8% |
| 15 | Yemen | 420,000 | 1.8% |
| 16 | Libya | 353,900 | 5.5% |
| 17 | Iraq | 325,000 | 1.1% |
What the report doesn’t address is the online payment capabilities in each of those countries. Internet access with the no commerce capabilities can only encourage consumption websites (news, brochures, blogs, …) with limited monetization potential, rather than full-fledged online services, and the numbers above only tell one part of the story.
Armigatus 