Arab net population passes 3.5 million - 05/2001

There are now 3.54 million Internet users in the Arab world, up 1.5 million in the past year, according to a new study carried out by Ajeeb.com and sponsored by Tejari.com and Visa International.

Ajeeb predicts that there will be over 5 million users in Arab countries by the end of this year, and 10 to 12 million by the end of 2002.

Penetration was highest and grew fastest in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The number of Internet users there increased in the past 12 months by 57 percent to 660,000, or almost a quarter of the UAE population.

Bahrain has the next highest level of Internet penetration with 16.67 percent and Qatar is next with 10.27 percent. Kuwait has 8.25 percent, Lebanon has 6.56 percent, and all other Arab countries have less than 5 percent of the population online.

The survey found that the average number of users per Internet account in most Arab countries is three. Jordan has six users per account because of the popularity of Cybercafs and the high cost of home access. Egypt has eight users per account as many users go online at universities.

Iraq has the highest number of users per account at 25, largely because of the United Nations sanctions in place against Iraq.

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