Arabic Search Engine Preferences - 2005
Dec 08,2006 00:00 by Ayna.com

Arabic Search Engine Preferences

Category: Marketing Research
Publication Year: 2005

Introduction

Ayna Corporation conducted a thorough Marketing Research to capture user preferences relating to the features they prefer in an Arabic search Engine. The data was collected from a random population representing users in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The study was prompted by the efforts and interest generated by Arab goverment officials who participated in the First Arabic Search Engine conference that took place in Sharm Elsheikh, Egypt (Feb 2005). The event was hosted by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO), and sponsored by Ayna.

The survey

The survey was designed to recognize what search engine features and content the users value the most. The survey questions included.

  • Five point likert scale to measure how much the user agrees or disagrees with a given statement (1=highly disagree, and 5= highly agree).
  • Single and multiple choice to record other preferences and group orientations.
  • Gender, Age, and other independent variables were part of the survey to help us uncover any relationship between preferences and these variables.

Sample Collected Data
Figure 1. Sample Survey Data

MENA user profile

  • About 65% are under the age of 30, representing a young population. - (See figure 2)
  • Majority prefer to read content in Arabic. (See figure 3)
  • About 60% have an English-Arabic educational background. (See figure 4)
  • Ayna.com was rated 2nd after Google as the "most used search engine" (See figure 5)
  • Majority were from MENA region, equally divided between North Africa, Levant and GCC (See figure 6)
  • Over 80% of users have mobile phones. (See figure 7)

Age Group - Figure 2

Figure 2. Age Group

Language preference - Figure 3

Figure 3. Language preference

Educational Background - Figure 4

Figure 4. Educational Background

Figure 5. Search Engine used the Most

Region

Figure 6. Region

 Mobile Ownership

Figure 7. Mobile phone ownership

Findings

User preferences were evaluated using one sample t-tests, and only accepted results with a significance level of .05 or lower. A two-tail t-test was used in all computations unless otherwise stated. Ayna was only interested in responses that are slightly higher than neutral, so the comparative mean was set to 3.5.

Positive user interest was registered for “Fast results” (M = 4.37, SD = 1.14) with t(430) = 8.71, p < .001, “Search for educational or research sites” with (M = 4.18 , SD = 1.10), t(430) = 7.1, p <. 001, “Search for religious information” with (M = 4.00, SD = 1.20), t(430) = 4.82, p < .001, “Search Arabic language sites” with (M = 3.95, SD = 1.32), t(430) = 3.95, p < .001, “Search for news sites” with (M = 3.95, SD = 1.2), t(430) = 4.34, p < .001, “Search for International sites” with (M = 3.91, SD =1.14), t(430) = 4.10, p < .001. “Use spell check” with (M = 3.89, SD = 1.28), t(430) = 3.50, p = .001. “Search for MENA sites” with (M = 3.82, SD = 1.16), t(430) = 3.12, p = .002.

These findings can be summarized as follows, in descending order:

  • Fast results
  • Search for educational or research sites
  • Search for religious information
  • Search Arabic language sites
  • Search for news sites
  • Search for International sites
  • Use spell check
  • Search for MENA sites

About the marketing research

The marketing research is Copyrighted by Ayna Corporation (c) 2005. The study was conducted by Gary McAlister, Natalya Raptakis, and Adonis El Fakih for Ayna corporation as part of their MBA research.