The use of the internet - and through it Google’s products - has exploded in recent years in Egypt. From just 1% of people being online in 2000, 53.5% of the Egyptian population now use the internet and 43% of those aged 15 and above use a smartphone.
Of course, Egyptian internet users have a wide range of products and companies to choose from to search for information, watch interesting content, and support their working lives. Of the online Egyptians we polled, the majority are regular users of Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube.
While women and low income groups remain less likely to be online, they are catching up. From our polling, these groups are much more likely to have recently joined the internet and if trends continue, they will be increasingly be able to benefit from the internet.
So what are those benefits? We looked at how Google products were used, and why, across people’s daily lives, their work, and in their interactions with society and its institutions:
- Google makes people’s lives easier. We found that Google Search saved online Egyptians around a day a year - 23 hours - and that increasingly Egyptians were able to get things done like email or researching purchases while travelling around. Google is increasingly used to support family life - helping people stay in touch and, with YouTube and Search, as a way to help children gain knowledge and learn. Google products are also used to help people pursue their hobbies and have more fun - whether that’s online with YouTube videos or offline when using Maps to find restaurants. In total our estimates find that the total value to consumers is E£ 131 billion a year, while Search creates E£ 156 in value per month for the median Egyptian.
- Google supports work life. We polled business leaders across Egypt and found that, increasingly, the internet is a foundational part of their companies and their productivity. Companies use Google to reach customers worldwide and get the best possible return on their advertising. Businesses also agree it has made them more customer focused. For the smallest businesses, Google is particularly important: 92% of businesses with fewer than 50 employees say free search and free office tools help them compete with bigger players. In total we estimate Google products support at least E£ 5.2 billion in economic activity in Egypt.
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Google helps people contribute to society. Our polling found that people now think they are exposed to a wider range of views, and more sources of news, than before search engines. Our modelling also finds that Google products - particularly Maps - have a major impact on the environment, saving the equivalent of 25,000 round the world flights in carbon emissions.
How we quantified Google’s impact in Egypt
How does Egypt benefit from the transformations we discussed above? That is not something that is easy to calculate from traditional economic statistics, which often do not take full account of the full benefits created by saved time or the opportunities access to information brings. That would also have been true of the printing press or TV. But that doesn't mean that it is unimportant.
In this paper, we sought to use a range of different methods to quantify how Google products help people in their daily lives and aid economic growth.
- To start, building on the precedent of previous Google impact reports 1, we used traditional economic modelling built upon third-party estimates of Google’s market size, potential returns on investment (ROI) and productivity enhancements to measure the economic activity driven by Google Search, Google Ads, AdSense, YouTube, and Android.
- In order to build a broader picture of the benefits, we conducted extensive polling to ask individuals and businesses how they made use of Google products and what difference they made to their leisure, work and society. Working with the panel providers Dynata and African Business Communities, we polled a nationally representative sample of 730 adults and 455 senior business managers across Egypt, asking them 50 and 23 questions respectively about their experience using Google and other online products. Public First is a member of the British Polling Council, and full tables for all the data used in this report are available to download from the website.
- The best methodology to accurately estimate the consumer benefits created by free internet services is still a matter of intense debate amongst economists. For the purposes of this project, we experimented with a range of different methodologies, exploring how this affects the range of possible estimates, and allowing us to produce new benefits for the marginal value created by Google in Egypt.
- Finally, we explored 15 in-depth case studies of how businesses and individuals across Egypt are using Google to power their business.
We go into greater depth on our methodology in the last chapter, which explores how it compares and contributes to the wider debate on measuring the value created by the Internet. The full technical details are given in an appendix at the end of the report
While Google commissioned this report from Public First, it did not supply any additional information and all estimates are derived from official, third party and proprietary information.
10 ways in which the lives of Egyptians are being helped by Google and the internet
We polled online Egyptians across regions, age groups and gender and found, together with our modelling, that:
Helping people spend time on what matters
Introduction
We all want to spend time on what matters. We might be focused on time with our families. We may want to pursue new hobbies and interests. Or we might just want to be able to relax.
What we want hasn’t changed much in recent decades. But our polling of online Egyptians across regions, ages and gender did find that how we get what we want has changed substantially.
We uncovered four key ways that Google’s different products now help people juggle work, family, and other interests:
- It helps us get things done - so we can spend time on what matters. Google Search and Google Maps - particularly when used on smartphones like Android - are a fast and convenient way to get things done. In total, Google Search saves the average person 23 hours a year.
- It helps support family life. Children use Google Search and YouTube for homework. We look to the internet to keep in touch with our family across the world, and Google Products are increasingly a source of information and advice on health and wellbeing.
- It helps us pursue new interests. YouTube is increasingly used by Egyptians - and has overtaken traditional TV with young audiences. What do people use YouTube for? To follow their interests - music, sports, games, beauty - and help them with what they’re doing at home, whether it’s cooking or DIY. At the same time Google Search is being used to help people find new information and increase their knowledge.
- It helps us find a way of enjoying the free time we have. One of the advantages of saved time is that you can use it on the things you enjoy. Again, people in Egypt are using Google products to help them do that – by watching programmes on YouTube; or downloading games and apps on the Google Play store.
All of this equates to significant value. Our modelling found that Google’s products create at least E£131 bn in consumer surplus for the Egyptian economy.
Google is used by an ever-greater proportion of Egyptians
A rapidly increasing number of Egyptians are using the internet
Increase internet usage in Egypt
In 2000 just 1% of Egyptians used the internet. Since then there has been an explosion in demand and access. In 2018 - for the first time - over half of the Egyptian population got online, and in 2019 penetration has increased further to 53.5%2 3.
In our poll of Egyptians, smartphone usage has also substantially increased. 18% of respondents had started using a smartphone regularly in the last three years.
When did you start using a smartphone?
Egyptians online are turning to Google’s products
We first wanted to understand if internet users in Egypt were choosing to use Google products or alternatives. We polled online Egyptians across regions, age groups and gender and found that the equivalent of:
Google Search
adult Egyptians
use Google Search;
YouTube
adult Egyptians
use YouTube;
Google Maps
adult Egyptians
use Google Maps;
Many of those people are new. Over 83% of Google Maps users and 50% of YouTube users started regularly turning to the products in the last five years. Egyptians are also finding Google Maps and YouTube increasingly useful: compared with five years ago, 84% use YouTube more frequently; and 60% use Google Maps more frequently.
When did you start regularly using...
Getting things done
Why do so many people use Google products? Our polls and economic modelling find that Google’s Search and Maps services are faster and more convenient than the alternatives. This provides direct benefits - Egyptians can find answers to their questions and get to locations more quickly - but it also frees up time for other endeavours. That ability to get things done has been enhanced by the increasing use of the internet through using smartphones, which in Egypt are usually Android.
Saving precious time
Saving time with Search
From our polling we know the reason that people use Search so heavily is because they believe it allows them to find valuable information easily, quickly, and learn new things that traditional methods make difficult. When we offered people a range of reasons why people use Search:
Speed
it is faster than alternatives;
Convenience
it is easier than the alternatives.
How much time do you save with Search?
Previous research has found that people save at least 23 hours a year from Search compared with other methods of finding information because it is faster and easier to access. If you included the time saved by applying the new information from Google – trying out a new recipe, or learning a new skill – the time saved would be even greater.
In 23 hours or less you can:
- Walk from New Cairo City to the Suez Canal (El-Shaarawy)4
- Watch Grand Hotel 1.5 times over, or 46 episodes5
- Read Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz 3 times.6
How much do people use Google Search?
Google’s stated mission is to “organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” But how much does access to information matter? How much do Egyptians in their everyday life look for new information?
The answer is that they need it a lot. Our poll found that 2 in 5 adult Egyptians use Google Search. Google Search is now one of the most-used consumer services. Indeed, if you considered its impact on domestic life, the average is more than two times as likely to use Google daily than domestic appliances such as irons. It is embedded in our lives.
Usage of Google Search by Age
Saving time with Maps
Until relatively recently, we relied on atlases and paper maps to find new places. We may also have got into arguments about directions while driving, or been worried about going to unknown locations on our own.
Today, the equivalent of one in three Egyptians turn to Google Maps at least once a month and a high proportion of those use it daily. When we asked a series of questions about why people used Google Maps, we saw that saving time - through avoiding traffic, avoiding getting lost, or to getting better directions - was very common.
Our modelling estimates find that people save three hours a year through using Google Maps – sometimes in their car, and sometimes using public transport or walking.
- Including Google Economic Impact (US, 2019, Google), Google’s Impact in the UK: At Home, At School At Work (UK, 2018, Public First), Google’s Economic Impact (Canada, 2018, Deloitte),Google Economic and Social Impact (New Zealand, 2017, AlphaBeta), Google Economic and Social Impact (Australia, 2015, AlphaBeta) and Google’s Economic Impact: United Kingdom (UK, 2014, Deloitte)
- http://www.mcit.gov.eg/Upcont/Documents/Publications_2112014000_Future_of_the_Internet_Economy_.pdf
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/484939/internet-user-reach-egypt/
- https://www.google.com/maps/dir/30.5685772,32.2693176/New+Cairo+City,+Egypt/@30.2768394,30.699481,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x145822cffcd270e7:0x98b73d687889fd8!2m2!1d31.4913182!2d30.007413!3e2
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5857914/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Walk, 512 pages, 250 words per page, 300 words read per minute, https://wordcounter.io/blog/how-many-words-per-page/, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2012/06/04/do-you-read-fast-enough-to-be-successful/#10872258462e