Blogs on the increase in Morocco

As Adam Mahdi for the online journal, Magharebia in Casablanca reports, a growing number of Moroccan Internet surfers have become bloggers this year due to cheaper Internet access, the general availability of ADSL and the launch of a number of local blog platforms. Current developments in the already diverse Moroccan blogosphere include the creation of an Arabic-language blog platform and an Internet portal combining news, a subject directory and a blog platform. Sadly English language blogs are still rare - which is possibly why you are reading The View from Fez!

Here's Adam's report:

ADSL access has become cheaper and more available due to deregulation of the telecom sector. Morocco now has over 5 million Internet surfers and more than 400,000 subscribers, with most using ADSL.

The increased access has encouraged a number of Moroccan businesses to launch their own platforms. Blogjahiz.ma and Blogs.ma are the two major Moroccan platforms at the present. The immense popularity of blogs among young people has led to the recent launch of Marblog.com by Multimedia Studios.

The Moroccan blogosphere now has over 10,000 blogs, not including blogs set up on other international platforms or private blogs with personal domain names.

The dominance of French in the Moroccan blogosphere is beginning to lessen as Arcanes Technologies' recently-launched Blogjahiz is the first Arabic-language Moroccan platform.

"The creation of an Arabic-language platform will certainly help Moroccan bloggers overcome the language barrier of French and English and start blogging with ease," says Arcanes CEO Amine Riadi.

Blogs.ma is currently working to create an Internet portal to provide news, a comprehensive subject directory, and a forum to create blogs, according to Tarik Essaadi, manager of Point Info, which is running this platform.

An indicator of the diversity of the Moroccan blogosphere is the wide variety of different kinds of blogs. Blog types include personal diaries, professional, discussion of a field of interest, medical, photoblogs, and podcasts.

"Moroccan bloggers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and all have different stories to tell. They have a wide variety of everyday interests and concerns. They also have wide-ranging views on politics and philosophy," according to Moroccan blogger Larbi.

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news