CAIRO: The Internet has quickly become one of Egypt's cash cows in recent years, from an almost non-existent market to one of the country's strongest. According to a new survey from Arab Advisors on retail e-commerce in 2009, Egyptian users spent around $2.1 billion. The study reveals that the Internet and e-commerce are on the rise in the country. The survey, “Egypt Internet Users and e-commerce Survey 2010″ was released on April 12 and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of Internet users in Egypt. The survey covers the Internet usage, IPTV, games, e-commerce, cellular and Pay TV usage and habits of the online community in Egypt. The Arab Advisors Group major online survey of Egypt's Internet market reported that 34.6 percent of adult Internet users in Egypt use e-commerce, including bill payments and e-statements. This was almost unheard of five years ago. The Arab Advisors Group estimated the number of Egypt Internet users who utilize e-commerce to be around 2.36 million, or three percent of the total population in Egypt. “These e-commerce users spent an estimated US$ 2.1 billion in e-commerce transactions in 2009 which includes bill payments online,” the survey said. “VoIP usage among Internet users reached 46.3 percent. Of the total respondents, 41.6 percent use special software packages (such as Skype, GoogleTalk) to make calls through the Internet. A small majority of respondents (53.7 percent) do not make calls through the Internet.” Mr. Hussam A. Barhoush, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst, wrote in the report. BM
