Microsoft, Google eye Arabic content

Cairo: The further integration of Arabic language capabilities in internet and other technological architecture will grant millions access to the digital world, Microsoft and Google executives said.

As devices and applications become more ubiquitous in less developed countries, their content will grow and an embryonic e-economy should flourish, they said.

"[Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer and I a few years ago talked and believed Arabic would be an increasingly important language," said Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer.

"And yet, because of the way the internet was evolving, it wasn't a language that was getting a lot of use."

However, while Arab world internet use since 2000 has grown faster than anywhere else and access costs have shrunk, content still punches below its weight and advertising spending remains tiny.

Arabic content is less than 1 per cent of world totals though speakers constituting 5 per cent of the global population.

The Arabic portal of online encyclopedia Wikipedia carries less words than its Catalan site, Google's regional marketing manager Wael Gonim said.

"There is a lot of Arabic content but it is not well structured," he said.

"We want more structured content. We want more of the professional, niche sites, more businesses."

"One of our biggest missions is to enable Arabic users to find the right tools to enrich Arabic content," Gonim said.

"It would be great to see more e-commerce in the region, more publishers, more news sites. We are committed to help them."

Asked how Google could aid such regional growth, Gonim said: "We have a very ambitious plan in the next few months, we are working on many initiatives."

He did not elaborate.

Regional spending on online advertising was around $90 million (Dh330.5 million) in 2009, up from $66.5 million in 2008 and $38 million in 2007 but still miniscule compared to Britain's $5.3 billion.

Gonim said Arabic speakers have historically engaged in poorly organised and difficult to archive forums.

Both Google and Microsoft place Arabic in their top ten languages in need of prioritised attention. Microsoft's Mundie was visiting the Cairo Microsoft Innovation Centre, a regional hub launched in 2006 that released Windows extension Maren, which converts Arabic written in Roman characters into Arabic script.

It is Microsoft's second most popular service by page views after Internet Explorer 8.