UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
The official UAE Government portal has seen a steady increase in the number of its visitors, securing an upward growth as their number has doubled seven times in almost a year since its launching in April 2014, ultimately witnessing a significant rise in its users to 5 million in 2018.
Compared to the number of users in 2017, the figure tripled in just one year. The number of sessions for 2018 reached 7.5 million, while page-views amounted to more than 12 million. For top visited pages, ‘visa tracking and fees’ came in the first place, followed by ‘value added tax’ and then ‘employment laws and regulations’.
Statistics show that 83 percent of users come through various search engines and 37 percent opt for the portal from other countries, including India, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the USA and Egypt. The keywords the portal users searched for on the portal focused on visas, jobs and taxation. Different phrases were used to search, but most of them relate to visas, jobs and taxes.
Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, Director General, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said, “Government.ae is the official portal of the UAE Government and is the main interface of the UAE on the internet. It supports the Whole-of-Government principle, as emphasised by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, when he launched the portal in May 2011. The increase in the portal users contributes to the achievement of the TRA’s goals, specifically the enhancement of e-lifestyle in the UAE. It also helps increase usage of online services to keep up with the Leadership’s instructions.”
Salem Al Housani, Acting Deputy Director General, Information and Smart Government Sector, says, “We aim to make the UAE’s national portal as the first destination for people to search for government services and information. These people could be citizens, residents, visitors or those living abroad and having the desire to know about the UAE. Therefore, the portal management team updates the portal’s content daily, taking into account the suggestions and feedback of the portal users.”
TRA launched the revamped portal in April 2017, after implementing major updates that reflect the global developments and local needs. The portal management team conducted many user experience tests to monitor the needs of different groups of society and incorporated the results into the business requirements in the areas such as content, design and accessibility of information and services, focusing on the people of determination in particular.
In May 2018, the TRA launched a campaign aiming at the development of the content of the official portal of the UAE Government (Government.ae). The mechanism of the campaign involves the target groups suggesting information that is missing on the portal and providing official references and sources of such information. The campaign achieved considerable success, which resulted in adding and updating more than 100 topics.
Counting on this success, it has been decided to continue the campaign across 2019.
