CAIRO: Egyptians are getting online more and more in recent years. According to a report published by the Information and Decesion Center of the Egyptian Cabinet on Saturday, the total number of Internet users in the country reached some 14.5 million, compared to only 300,000 in 1999. Among Arab nations, Egypt topped the list in terms of Facebook users and was ranked 23rd globally in this regard. Over two million Egyptians uses the social-networking site, making it nearly one percent of all Facebook users worldwide, the report said. Egypt ranked second in the Arab world and 23rd globally in terms of YouTube.com users. According to the report, Egypt accounts for 0.9 percent of all users of the video site across the planet. The report pointed out that Egyptian blogs on the Internet accounted for about 30.7 percent of the total Arab blogs and about 0.2 percent globally. It said the number of Egyptian printed newspapers and magazines (national, partisan, private) that have electronic editions on the Internet reached 63 or 40.4 percent of the total newspapers and magazines printed in the Egypt. The number of websites of newspapers, magazines, paper-based service that allows readers to comment reached 17 sites (12 sites for independent newspapers and magazines and three sites for state-owned newspapers and magazines and two sites for partisan newspapers and magazines), or 27 percent of the total 63 Egyptian press sites. Al-Masry Al-Youm`s website came at the top of electronic newspaper sites that were browsed during the period from mid-October 2009 to mid-January last year, while Al-Youm Al-Saba`a`s Website, is the site that has seen the largest increase of views during the same period. The report, however, pointed to a lack of infrastructure for information technology and the Internet as well as high illiteracy rates in Egypt and “the high technological literacy have a wide range of educated people and the lack of qualified human cadres and trained the most important obstacles facing the electronic media in Egypt.” BM
