Saudi Arabia and the United States host the largest number of viewers of Arabic online news portals

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Most viewers of Arabic-language news portals in the region are in Saudi Arabia, while the majority of Arabic-speaking users from outside the Arab world live in the United States. Moreover, the gender gap persists with all portals reporting that most of their viewers are males.

In a turbulent region, news is one of the most sought after types of online content. This has led to the emergence of several portals featuring news targeting the Arabic-speaking community, and page impressions and unique users are two common methods to assess the performance of such portals.

A new report, “Arabic Online Portals Featuring News Content” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on May 1, 2006. The 33-page report, which has 28 detailed exhibits, analyzes the monthly page impressions, unique users and demographic breakdowns of selected portals featuring news content in the Arabic language. The selected portals are all regional in their outlook and include major satellite news channel websites, business and financial news portals, and general websites featuring Arabic news. These portals are: Al Arabiya’s news portal, Al Bawaba, AME Info, CNN Arabic, Maktoob, Menafn, Mena Report, Middle East Online and MSN Arabia. The report also features demographic information for Al Jazeera’s news portal.

“Analyzing the demographic breakdowns of the web portals’ visitors, it appears that most users in the Arab world are in Saudi Arabia, while many Arabic-speaking users from outside the region live in the United States. Additionally, males consistently outnumber females as viewers of Arabic news on the web,” Arab Advisors Group’s media analysts wrote in the report.