Internet Usage Habits in Yemen

The current survey is part of SRDC’s work on market research and internet polls. This survey was conducted last August and it targeted a random sample of internet users through the mailing lists kept by the Center.

About the Internet in Yemen

Only 14.2% of Yemen’s population has access to internet and they are mostly in urban areas. However, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MTIT) says the percentage is 17% and the number of internet subscribers is 595,759, with a sizable portion for commercial use. This includes both ADSL and Dial up subscriptions. According to MTIT, there are over 4 million “casual” users of internet in Yemen, but it is not clear who they come up with this statistics.

Why E-Polls?

The introduction of internet has made a major breakthrough in how people communicate and it has also made the global village even much smaller and more connected than ever before and it did away with spatial and temporal differences and considerations. The Internet has also changed the way people do business. On the other hand, there has been a major tendency around the world to move to e-polls to replace face-to-face and telephone surveys, most particularly in countries whose populations have access to internet. Even in countries where internet coverage is limited, there is a huge increase in internet users and companies are working hard to invent devices that would make internet cheaper and available to all citizens of the world.

In Yemen, there is a large expansion in internet usage through fixed broadband and people are now turning to mobile internet provided through the mobile phone operators. The four mobile phone operators combined have 12 million subscribers (almost half of Yemen’s overall population). Recently, access to internet through WiMAX and mobile internet modems has been on the rise. The key challenge now is how to provide cheaper and faster internet service, be that for mobile or fixed internet. This can be evidenced by the number of internet subscribers in Yemen which was just 7000 in 2000 and it rose to 581,752 subscribers in 2011, according to the Statistics Department at MTIT.

About the Sample

This survey was conducted on a random sample of internet users in Yemen; 500 internet users selected randomly from the mailing list kept by SRDC were contacted to complete the survey. The study sought to know the consumption patterns of internet, types of devices used, the favored times for surfing the internet, etc. Out of 500 questionnaires sent to the selected respondents, 107 questionnaires were completed and sent back. Later, four questionnaires were excluded as they contain missed data. The response rate for this survey is 21%.

The low response rate is common in internet surveys and there is another problem connected with internet sample since the overwhelming majority of people in Yemen has no access to internet.

Some Questions From The Survey:

What Respondents Do with the Internet?

Half of respondents (51%) spend their time using the Facebook, 19% spend their time searching for information and books, 13% use the internet for e-mails, 6% spend their time following news and 11% spend their time doing all of the above.

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Times Favored for Internet Surfing

As to the favored times for surfing the internet, the overwhelming majority of respondents (64%) prefer the night, while 20% prefer to surf the internet in the morning and 10% prefer to surf the internet in the afternoon.

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Device Used to Access the Internet

The majority of respondents (64%) use their laptops to access the internet, while 21% use their desktops to access the internet and 12% stated they use their smart phones to access the internet. This clearly indicates that the tendency to use laptops and smart phones to access the internet is on the rise.

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Number of Hours Spent in Surfing the Internet

Slightly more than half of respondents (52%) spend 2-5 hours in surfing the internet, while 18% spend 6-10 hours in surfing the internet and another 18% spend only one hour in surfing the internet. About 8% of respondents stated they spend more than 10 hours and 4% spend less than one hour in internet surfing.

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Place of Internet Access

Asking respondents about the place from which they access the internet, the majority (69%) stated they access the internet from their homes, 13% reported they access internet from their workplace, 12% stated they access the internet from the internet café and 4% mentioned they use their smart phones to access the internet.

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For detailed findings, you are kindly requested to see the attached file

Attachments
Internet Usage Habits in Yemen.pdf