Internet subscriptions in Saudi Arabia rose to 13.6 million by the end of 2011, from 11.4 million a year earlier, according to the Kingdom's telecommunications regulator. The number of fixed-line phone subscribers was 4.6 million by the end of December, the Communications and Information Technology Commission said in a quarterly statement posted on its website. Separately, Jawhara.me, the first multi-content bilingual portal for females, said that in the three weeks since its official launch, visitor numbers have increased by an average of 57 percent week on week, with half of all visitors coming from the Saudi Arabia (50.7 percent) and more than a quarter from the UAE (27.4 percent). The site is also attracting visitors from Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, and Qatar. Jawhara.me has also made an impression within the online industry, having been shortlisted as Best New Website – Media & Communications in this year's Internet Show Awards Middle East. Figures for the site in February, released Monday by LINKonLINE – one of the largest Arabic online publishing companies in the Middle East and North Africa, and owner and operator of the Jawhara.me portal – reveal that each visitor spends an average of five and a half minutes browsing through its exclusive and diverse content including fashion, finance, careers, technology and travel sections. Health & beauty and fashion were the most visited destinations on the website. Mostafa Kamel, Managing Director of LINKonLINE, said "more than one third of those online in the Arab World are women, yet when were conducting research prior to the launch of Jawhara.me, we found that content specifically aimed at females was very limited. When it came to bilingual Arabic and English content, this was even more marked. Since the launch, we've seen that those aged 25 to 34 are by far and away the highest users of Jawhara.me, accounting for around more than half of all visitors (55 per cent), which reflects this age group's desire for the latest female focused information and content."
