Lebanese Blogosphere Facts & Figures of 2011

Just as we did last year, with the Lebanese Blogosphere Facts & Figures 2010, we honor this tradition which will hopefully last a long time and come to you this year with the newest updates and figures about the Lebanese bloggers and the blogs that have emerged and few turned into more.

• We closed 2010 with a bit more than 420 blogs. But this year, we have 639 blogs! This means +219 blogs have been added during 2011 alone.
• 7.3% of blogs are in Arabic. The rest are in English, with few in French.
• Lebanon Aggregator was born on Facebook in February 2011 and has now 1,643 "likers".
• Bloggers turned their blogs into books such as Our Man in Beirut and T0om Extra
• Others have had their materials used on TV such as Hummus Nation
• 11 Lebanese bloggers attended the 3rd Arab Bloggers meeting that took place in Tunis in October 2011.

• Many bloggers have been invited to talk on different TV shows about their blogs/causes/initiatives such as Miss Farah, The Cube, Ontornet, Beirut Street Photographers, Beirut Public Space, ...
• Several bloggers have been featured in international news websites such as CNN, Huffington Post, BBC... For example, Nadine Moawad / Nasawiya and the Girl Geek Camp initiative where many female bloggers gave sessions to teenagers about technological topics.
• Bloggers repeatedly invited to cover, as "media", many clubs / restaurants openings and closings, press releases, fundraisings and other events.
• Bloggers were also featured in Rectangle Jaune Blog/Magazine, they looked geeky, cool & elegant. Who says bloggers cannot be fashionable?
• Bloggers are present everywhere and in print too.
• Dozens of bloggers have been featured in Communicate magazine. You can see them all on LebAgg's facebook wall photos
• The Gate Magazine also dedicated a page to highlight bloggers of the month
• Le Commerce de Levant "Le who's who de la blogosphere libanaise"

• Starting June 2011, Ragmag Lebanon provided a nice cozy print space for the online Lebanese bloggers, where Lebanon Aggregator chooses 3 bloggers under a certain theme (Visual, Motorized, Health, Hung up on beautiful Lebanon, Influential male), and introduces them to the "offline" world. The column's name is World Vision, and you can read all previous issues here.
• Bloggers got together and collaborated for a cause to encourage people to read books, and the baby is called "The Cube". In addition to that, one review per month by The Cube is picked by Lebanon Aggregator and included in World Vision column in Ragmag.
• 5 blogs have been chosen as Blog of the week.
• Blogs types are becoming even more various and richer than ever. Blogs about Fashion, Food, Health & Nutrition, Sports, Football, Tech, Photography, Art, Relationships and much more.. are being added every day.
• Bloggers have discussed politicians on twitter, slow internet, minimum wage, design, politics, Lebanon, Voting for Jeita, copy cat ads & creatives, Steve Jobs death, technology, increasing crime rate in Lebanon, Lebanese behavioral change, their own travels and much more. 
• And before we forget, in 2011, Lebanon Aggregator celebrated its 5th anniversary. 

Illustration by Sareen

It has been a wonderful year, the increase of number of blogs per year is on the rise, quality of blogs is definitely impressive, variety of blogs is astounding, several blogs get thousands of hits per day reaching international audience, many times bloggers are inspiring traditional media to talk about topics they have covered on their blogs. There are many countless stories and events that occurred in 2011, and the bloggers in Lebanon have made it happen.

Cheers to all Lebanese bloggers and foreign bloggers who report from Lebanon. Cheers to another great and successful year. To more and more and more.

Just don't forget about the golden rules of being a blogger ;)

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