Q:

Importance of PHP in web oriented platforms

Why is PHP the most used programming language for a web based platform? 

A:

PHP:

is easy to learn;
has been around for ~15 years;
runs fairly efficiently;
is cheap to host; and
actually scales really well (some of the largest sites on the internet use it).

PHP is basically the ultimate grass-roots success story.

A:

PHP is:

Built for the web, that is not an extension of an existing language like Perl.
Free of any default framework; this allows it to be fairly lightweight and powerful, a good example of the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle.

