Key Internet characteristics and e-commerce issues in Arab countries

This study describes the state of the Internet in Arab countries. It reports certain Internet characteristics and e-commerce issues in the region and brings some of the critical challenges facing the diffusion of the Internet and its applications in Arab countries to the attention of policy makers in these nations. Overall, the review reveals that most Arab countries still have a long way to cover before being able to fully realize the benefits of the Internet. Introduction and background It is no exaggeration to assert that we, as an information technology community of researchers and practitioners, know very little about the state of the Internet in the Arab world and more so in some parts of it. Probably some of us are partially informed about some aspects of the Internet in some Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, but certainly almost all of us are unaware of how many other Arab countries like Mauritania and Djibouti are doing in this regard. This fact suggests bad news for those CEOs who are eager to exploit the Internet to enter into the Arabian market, which is equal in size to that of the USA and in purchasing power to that of China and many other middle income countries. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it seeks to shed more light on Internet statistics in Arab countries (see Table I for basic statistics) including: Arab North-African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, and Tunisia), Arab East-African countries and Yemen (Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen), Arab heartland (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq), and Arab Gulf countries (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman). Second, it tries to suggest some guidelines to Arab decision makers as to how to build an environment conducive to Internet operations in their countries. Arab countries are similar in many ways including religion, customs and values, history, and language. However, without indulging into a debate over the differences and similarities between Arab countries, we contend that the above-named four sub-regions of the Arab world differ mainly in terms of wealth and size. Wealth-wise, most Arab countries, with the exception of the Arab Gulf countries, do not have access to sufficient wealth and resources. For The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-3845.htm The Internet in Arab countries