CAIRO: Move over America, there are two new Internet powerhouses in the world. A recent study conducted by TNS research has revealed that the Middle East and China are the top Internet enthusiasts on the planet. The study questioned 50,000 people in 46 countries about their Internet habits and then ranked them according to the results. Some 55 percent of those questioned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China were reported to be “highly engaged” online. In the United States and the United Kingdom this number dropped to 42 percent. Among European countries, only Turkey was in the top ten. “Another significant difference between these newer markets and those that are more established was in the involvement with social networking,” a press release from TNS said. “People in China, the Middle East and Latin America were all more likely to spend their time social networking, whereas email still has more significance elsewhere,” it added. Here in Cairo, the results are no surprise to social-networking researcher Thomas Rawlings, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. He told Bikya Masr that throughout his comparative work in the region and the US, “only the Middle East has been consistently active all the time.” He argued that it is a result of restrictions on public life and freedom of speech that has driven people online. “The results of this study seem to indicate that the worse off a society is in terms of its ability to speak out, the larger and more prominent online community has become,” added Rawlings. Overall, TNS reported that 61 percent of people with Internet access are daily users, while only 54 percent of those people watched television on a daily basis. 36 percent were regular radio listeners and a mere 32 percent read newspapers with any regularity. “Mobile access seems set to change the picture still further, with mobile internet boosting usage in newer markets significantly,” the study added. BM
