With more than 340 million speakers, Arabic is one of the world’s major languages – the fifth most widely spoken by some counts.
Yet, today Global Post asks if, in fact, Arabic is a dying language.
Native Arabic speakers constitute about 3% of all internet users, according to World Bank figures. And yet, less than 1% of the contents of the internet are in Arabic.
Make no mistake, though, Arabic and the Arab world are only becoming more important online.
The Middle East and North Africa have seen the fastest growth of internet users the world over – a 900% increase in the past seven years – and more is being predicted.
But even if a breadth and depth of opinion, analysis and comment is developing on the Arabic web, it’s all lost on the English speaking world.
Into this gap enters Meedan.
Launching its website to the public today, Meedan says it wants to "build bridges between the Arab world and the West".
