October 1999

Overview: Bulgaria

General Background

A significant increase in the number of the Bulgarian Internet hosts as well as in the number of Web sites and their information content, has been observed in this year. It could be assumed that the WWW sites had become the most significant electronic information sources in the country.

The particular Web sites differ considerably in their range, design, information update, etc. Some of them are in the beginning stage of their creation and part of their envisaged contents and services are under construction. Numerous Web sites offer information in Bulgarian as well as in English.

Several Internet Portals and Search Engines directed to the Bulgarian Web content are already in use. Most of them offer a wide spectrum of additional information and services. In the survey conducted in September, data from the National Statistical Institute and the Bulgarian Internet Portals have been mainly used.

The analysis shows that the Web presence of central government-related institutions and agencies, higher schools and universities, companies in the computer - and telecommunications related industry, travel agencies, media (electronic media and newspapers), and financial institutions is relatively better. A tendency should be noted that more and more private companies announce their activity in the Internet, although in modest in volume and design Web pages.

The content of the Web sites of the regional and local authorities usually is directed only to particular aspects of their activity.

The Bulgarian Schools site ( http://schools.osf.bg/ ) is a Web-based facility, which serves like a gateway for schools resources in Bulgaria. This site offers several additional services for schools – free Web hosting, mail, chat, news, etc.

The Web presence of museums, hospitals/clinics and particularly of libraries is rather low. In most cases it consists of separate Web pages with a minimum of information content.

⁽¹⁾ Data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) refer to1998 and for school year 1998/1999.
⁽²⁾ Study was carried out between 25 – 30 September 1999.
⁽³⁾ 300 Health establishments from which 197 hospitals; 3579 ambulatory – polyclinics.