Dubai: Arabic is among the top five languages of the United Nations.
It is the mother-tongue of nearly 350 million people around the world. Yet, Arabic content on the internet accounts for less than one per cent.
Jordanian-Palestinian businessman Talal Abu Ghazaleh intends to launch later this year the first of its kind project with the aim of boosting the Arabic content on the internet.
“Our children are my main target because they are born with the tools of access to the internet,” Abu Ghazaleh told Gulf News in an interview. “You can see children at two or three years using various access tools which can connect them with the internet.”
The free online “library” which is called “Tagipedia” is a $10 million (Dh36.7 million) project that is financed by Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organisation.
“I want the future leaders in business and in governments to be able to access the Arabic content that we will make available for them. The Arabic language and the Arabic culture are so rich,” he continued.
The organisation is planning to request universities to provide it with the required data “that will go through the check list before it is posted”.
The data can be related to “every walk of life”, including science, arts, music and sport, and “any article that is originally Arabic”.
“We are not translating and we are not interested in data that is not written in Arabic.”
