Central Asian Internet Penetration from World Bank

Today Google announced public data available from World Bank integrated into Google Search.

Below you can see graph with Internet penetration in Central Asian countries:



Link: Internet Penetration in Central Asia 1997-2008

Internet penetration seems to be several times higher, thus more optimistic, comparing to data from ITU for all countries (see also 'at a glance' articles of this blog for each country: KZ KG TJ TM UZ).

Facebook reached Odnoklassniki in Kazakhstan?

In Google Trends, tool which compares search volume for given queries, you can see that Facebook has now caught Odnoklassniki by Google search queries numbers in Kazakhstan.

As you can see on the graph Odnoklassniki queries emerged in the country in November 2007 since then it boomed until middle 2008. Facebook raised in October 2008 and started to catch up with Russian social network in September 2009.


Link: Google Trends - Facebook vs Odnoklassniki in Kazakhstan

Top cities in Kazakhstan where Odnoklassniki is more popular:
1. Kustanay*
2. Koshetau*
3. Karaganda*
4. Pavlodar*
5. Astana
6. Chimkent*
7. Almaty*
8. Atyrau

* - more queries than Facebook

Top languages for Odnoklassniki queries:
1. Russian
2. Kazakh
3. English

Top cities in Kazakhstan where Facebook is more popular:
1. Atyrau*
2. Astana*
3. Chimkent
4. Almaty

* - more queries than Odnoklassniki

Top languages for Facebook queries:
1. Turkish
2. Italian
3. English
4. Kazakh
5. Russian

From language data possible guess could be that Turkish expats are ones of the heaviest Facebook users in Kazakhstan. What is your opinion on that? Why do you think Italian is also so high? Please add your comments below.

What about other Central Asian countries? Unfortunately there is not enough search volume for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. There is some data for 2009 for Uzbekistan though. Odnoklassniki seem to dominate for now.


Link: Google Trends - Facebook vs Odnoklassniki in Uzbekistan

At a glance:

Odnoklassniki
Launched: 2006/03
Registered users: 30'000'000 (2009/02)
http://blog.quintura.com/2009/02/26/odnoklassnikiru-hits-30-million-registered-users/?owa_from=feed&owa_sid=

Facebook
Launched: 2004/02/04
Registered users: 100'000'000 (2008/08)
Active users: 150'000'000 (2009/01)

Number of Uzbek Internet Users Exceeds 2.01 Million

The number of Internet users in Uzbekistan exceeded 2.01 million, the Uzbek agency for communication and information (UzACI) said in a press release.

As of 1 January 2008, more than 780 entities were providing data transfer services, including Internet access. There are currently more than 6,000 active domains in the national domain zone UZ.

Mobile subscribers amounted to 5.888 million as of 1 January, having increased by 3.168 million during 2007.

The number of companies and organizations producing software in Uzbekistan was more than 210 at the end of last year.

According to UzACI, enterprises of the ICT sector provided services worth 882 billion soums last year, of which 517 billion soums or 58.6% were services to the population.

Source: UzDaily

Webstan note:
Number of Internet users in Uzbekistan in May 2007 [source: ITU] used to be 1,745,000 users or 6.6% of population. CIA.gov estimate of current population is 27,780,059 (July 2007), it means penetration rate has grown up by 0.6% in half-year up to 7.2%.

Internet Speed Comparison in Central Asian Countries

On SpeedTest.net you can find out the speed of Internet in almost any country:

Internet Speed in Kazakhstan
Internet Speed in Kyrgyzstan
Internet Speed in Uzbekistan

On the web-site you can also compare speed specifying city or country area/region you are interested in.

Internet speed comparison for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan is not available at the moment.

Uzbekistan at a Glance

Area: 447,400 sq km (Spain 506K, Japan 378K)
Population: 26'600'000 [July 2005 est] (Canada 33M, Australia 21M)
Internet Penetration: 1,745,000 users / 6.6% [May/07 ITU]
Official language: Uzbek

Sources:
ITU
Wikipedia
Internet World Stats

Turkmenistan at a Glance

Area: 488'100 sq km (Spain 506K, Sweden 450K)
Population: 5'110'000 [Dec 2006 est] (Finland 5.3M, Ireland 4.2M)
Internet Penetration: 48,300 users / 0.7% [April/07 ITU]
Official language: Turkmen

Sources:
ITU
Wikipedia
Internet World Stats

Tajikistan at a Glance

Area: 143'100 sq km (UK 243K, Greece 132K)
Population: 6'740'000 [2006 est] (Switzerland 7.4M, Denmark 5.5M)
Internet Penetration: 19,500users / 0.3% [April/07 ITU]
Official language: Tajik

Sources:
ITU
Wikipedia
Internet World Stats

Kyrgyzstan at a Glance

Area: 199'900 sq km (UK 243K, Greece 132K)
Population: 5'300'000 [2005 est] (Denmark 5.5M, Finland 5.3M)
Internet Penetration: 280,000 users / 5.2% [Sept/06 ITU]
Official languages: Kyrgyz, Russian
Aliases: Kyrgyz Republic, Kirgizia, Kyrghyzstan, Kyrghyz Republic, Kirghizia.

Sources:
ITU
Wikipedia
Internet World Stats

Kazakhstan at a Glance

Area: 2'724'900 sq km (9th biggest, Argentina 2.8M Mexico 2.0M)
Population: 15'300'000 [2006 est] (Greece 11M, Netherlands 16M, Australia 21M)
Internet Penetration: 609,200 users / 4.2% [Aplil/07 ITU]
Official languages: Kazakh, Russian

Sources:
ITU
Wikipedia
Internet World Stats

Top Sites by Alexa.com

Here you can find current updated information about most popular web-sites in Central Asian countries. (At the moment there are stats only for Kazakhstan.)

Most popular web-sites in Kazakhstan
Most popular web-sites in Kyrgyzstan (no info yet)
Most popular web-sites in Tajikistan (no info yet)
Most popular web-sites in Turkmenistan (no info yet)
Most popular web-sites in Uzbekistan (no info yet)

The lists refer to the most popular sites among users in the country, not sites hosted in the country.

How have Alexa calculated the traffic? Answer here!