There are 300 million Arabic speakers from Morocco to Oman; only 5 million of them use the internet. That penetration rate of less than 2% is about the same as China's; Japan's, by comparison, is 30%. It's a telling sign of the tenuous connection between the Middle East and the rest of the world.
Microsoft will help to change this. In October it launched its own internet portal, MSN Arabia. With the press of a key, the crown prince of Dubai, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, launched the site.
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