Internet Usage Statistics and the Developing World

Probably ten or fifteen times a day, each one of us utilizes a service like Google or Yahoo, which relies heavily on user input, as well as enormous quantities of usage statistics to make an automated educated guess as to the content that you are seeking. Further, many of these sites allow you to specify information about your geographical location and your areas of interest to provide better results, such as local news and focused sports coverage. Not only has the usage of these services increased, with people now using custom news feeds and homepages such as iGoogle, but the search engine and its services has started to find its way into places where you wouldn't expect it. Google now performs the search function for the Macalester web page and Macalester e-mail runs through the G-Mail system, for instance.

Because Internet services rely so heavily on user statistics, and because Internet access and usage varies so greatly around the world, I would expect the Internet to have an inherent bias against certain users. I investigated rates of Internet usage around the world, and I found some startling differences. (click on the post title for the usage statis) Internet penetration in the United States is almost 75%, versus just under eight percent for Arab countries. Even more shocking is the variance among these states. Although no Arab country comes even close to the North American rates of penetration, more affluent countries score much higher than the global average, with Kuwait scoring a 25% rate and the UAE scoring 35%, for instance. These countries tend to house most of the Arab media outlets that I have encountered in my surfing and that have been mentioned so far in the course. On the other hand, the West Bank comes in at only 8%, while only 0.13% of Iraqis are users, the lowest rate among Arab countries. These low usage rates seem to correlate with a lack of prominent media outlets for these countries.

It makes sense that the Arab countries with the most internal conflict and poverty would have the lowest rates of usage, and that less domestic investment would lead to fewer well-funded news agencies. That's the thing with the Internet, though. It doesn't take much to create an Internet wildfire. Take the Huffington Post or Craig's List, for example. Both of these were started by individuals with minimal capitol investment. If these web titans can be created by ordinary people with laptops and dedication, why isn't the same possible, albeit to a lesser extent, in these countries? That's where I think the Internet's inherent geographic bias comes in. Less users in these countries leads to low rates of representation in usage statistics. Without some critical mass of users scattered around the globe, Arab sources that could best benefit from Internet exposure are being left in the dust.

On a more positive note, Internet usage has grown much more rapidly in Arab countries than in North America in recent years. Although most of the growth in the region has occurred in more affluent states, usage grew by almost 200% in Iraq and 600% in Palestine between 2000 and 2007.

I can't help but think: 'What can I do about this?' That's the other thing about the Internet. It's very democratic. The more we access these sources, the more that others will be exposed to them. A few months ago I started visiting al-Jazeera regularly, and now it is my primary source of both domestic and international news. Perhaps if I keep at it, my choice will slowly work its way through the circuits and algorithms in a server in California, and be manifest as an Internet search result for somebody in a far off land. That's subtle change.