CAIRO: “We are very excited about the kick start of the internet ecosystem in Egypt,” Wael Fakharany, regional manager North Africa for Google, told Daily News Egypt. The number of internet users in Egypt has grown by 20 percent since 2004, which is the largest increase throughout the region, the company highlighted in a note. More broadly, the number of internet users in the MENA region grew by a staggering 1,200 percent between 2000 and 2008. Nevertheless, Arabic content online attains a mere 1 percent while Arabic speakers represent 5 percent of the world's population, Fakharany said. There are about 45.9 million users that conduct web searches in Arabic, with that figure set to grow to 82 million by 2013. To offer its products to the growing number of Arabic online users, Google has set up a team that is mapping out the requirements of the market, Fakharany explained. The company has already rolled out a number of platforms for Arabic speaking users, such as a blog spot, a new search engine as well as a translation service to name a few. In Fakharany's estimation, the landscape of the services available will change radically, and the trend “is not stopping.” When inadequacies of its translations service were raised, as some users have complained about the quality of translations between Arabic and English, Fakharany agreed that it still has a few kinks which Google is currently working on fixing. In fact, the company is ameliorating the translation platform that works akin to the human brain's memory by translating chunks of text through understanding context and not just translating a word at a time, he explained. Once a translation of a phrase has been made correctly, he continued, the translation is registered within a database to be reused in the future when another user makes the same translation request. On the net Google has been making headlines after it and Verizon said regulators should be able to police web traffic over cable and telephone lines, but carriers should control the speed of access to content on mobile devices, prompting accusations that the company had “sold out.” Reuters reported that the joint announcement marks a surprising industry compromise over so-called "net neutrality" — a term that means high-speed internet providers should not block or slow information or charge websites to pay for a fast lane to reach users more quickly. Commenting on the ongoing controversy, Samir ElBahaie of Google in Egypt said that the regulatory environment in each country is unique and that this recent proposal does not affect Egypt. Meanwhile, regional manager Fakharany was particularly proud of Google Chrome, launched in mid-2008. “Already, the browser boasts 40 million users worldwide, and we work with local partners to provide a personalized service, such as offering Ramadan inspired recipes and prayers,” Fakharany said. The focus on creating local content — by as micro in focus as a user's neighborhood, also known as ‘geocoded searches' — is the area with the most potential for growth, he said. These platforms are all avenues through which Google attracts advertising revenue, a bulk of the company's overall revenue. Worldwide, the advertising market is worth a little more than $21-22 billion, and 90 percent of Google's revenues originate from advertising, Fakharany said. He acknowledged that Chrome, which is currently a free of charge web browser, would eventually become “monetized,” meaning it would be transformed into a paid-for-service. Google is confident that obliging consumers to pay for the browser would be successful over the long-term, because once consumers become accustomed to using a product, they will want to continue to do so even at a marginal cost. According to the company's strategy, this plan will only come to fruition once the browser has 100 million users worldwide, as this is considered the threshold number of users after which charging for the service becomes economically viable. The company, however, has yet to develop a plan to realize the objective of enticing Chrome users to pay up for using the browser. Seeking to harness the internet's potential to drive the economy, the Egyptian government recently signed an agreement with Google to help realize the potential of the online advertising industry, Fakharany explained. Signed with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, along with six other ministries, Google will invest $2.5 million dollars by helping make Egypt a digital hub through driving entrepreneurship and innovation, amongst others. Google will invest in internet-related and online advertising companies with potential to grow, by purchasing a part of a company's capital, much in the same way venture capitalism scheme works. “This is a very aggressive plan for Google, and the first of its kind,” stated Fakharany. Google is confident about this investment, citing a recent report by the Pan Arab Research Center (PARC), spending has increased by 36 percent in Egypt alone, and that for GCC and Levant countries, online advertising went from $38 million in 2007 to $95 million in 2009.
