Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category
Intel Capital Invests In Dubai-Based Startup Sphere Networks
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | October 29, 2008 – 10:07 pm |
5 Comments
Intel Capital, Intel’s investment arm, joined Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) by announcing its investment in Sphere Networks, an emerging Dubai-based startup specialising in next generation network management software. This move marks Intel’s first investment in a company based in the Gulf region.
The investment should help Sphere to expand both its technology base, get access to Intel technologies and develop sales and marketing to deliver its products to market. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The startup employs a team of 26 people, from different backgrounds, in Dubai; developing enterprise level network management solutions, which are already in use with a number of government customers in the region.
The investment, announced today by Christian Morales, Intel VP Sales & Marketing and General Manager, Europe Middle East and Africa, is part of Intel’s drive to expand its economic, educational and technology-related support across the UAE.
Under this program, Intel continues to increase its investment in four key areas: local entrepreneurship, education, digital accessibility and specialized technical competencies, to help promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and jobs creation in the UAE.
Commenting on the announcement, Morales underlined the importance of fostering innovative, home-grown ideas and noted that today’s news illustrates Intel’s ongoing commitment to collaborate with local players that share the vision of taking entrepreneurial projects to the next level of global competitiveness.
Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17 - 23, 2008
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | October 5, 2008 – 11:38 am | No Comments
The approaching week of November 17 - 23, 2008, is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide initiative aimed at young entrepreneurs everywhere who seek to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things.
During this week, governments and partner organizations from all over the world will host events ranging from invention competitions to local entrepreneurship summits - designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs.
The Week is a global initiative that is linking all those willing to embrace it. Host organizations in each participating country are recruiting partners and coordinating related activities. The exact type of these activities, whether online or face-to-face, is limited only by the imaginations of the partners and the participants. And while a list of suggested activities such as invention competitions, entrepreneurship film festivals, networking events, school-based activities, and local entrepreneurship summits - are available on the website, the actual activities conducted by partners will vary greatly.
And while it may be global in scope, at its heart, the Week is a local initiative that reflects the customs and entrepreneurial culture of each community. After all, what works in one corner of the world might be quite different from what works in another.
Some hosts and partners have signed up from a number of Arab countries to take part in this week, by conducting activities and organizing events. To check the hosts and partners in your country, apply to be a host, sign up as a partner or member, or add an activity; you can visit the official website: Global Entrepreneurship Week
ASTF And Intel Launch 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 17, 2008 – 3:51 pm | No Comments
The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), a regional and international non-profit NGO, in collaboration with Intel announced the launch of the 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition, and the start of the 2nd Made in the Arab World Competition, across more than ten Arab countries including the UAE, KSA, Jordan and Egypt.
ASTF was established in 2000 by Arab scientists and researchers in order to identify and support outstanding scientific achievement within the region. The Foundation also seeks to promote the advancement Arab entrepreneurship by acting as a mediator between up and coming companies and investors.
Commenting on the announcement, Ferruh Gurtas, Corporate Affairs Group Director, Intel Middle East, Turkey and Africa said: ’The Middle East is an exciting and dynamic region with a growing number of entrepreneurs - many of whom require initial funding to launch their projects. The 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition does just that. It is an opportunity for young, Arab entrepreneurs to map out and transform their ideas from a concept to a tangible working company. At Intel we believe entrepreneurship is a key driver for emerging Middle East economies. As the region begins to compete on an increasingly global scale, these skills, coupled with technological expertise will help local businesses to excel in an international marketplace.’
The Arab Technology Business Plan Competition strives to support and assist Arab entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into successful ventures by providing them with access to potential investors and venture capitalist that are willing to finance promising technology start-ups through the Arab Investment Forum, which is held annually in one of the participating Arab nations.
Broadband Subscribers Increase By 48% In The Middle East
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 11, 2008 – 12:03 pm | No Comments
The number of broadband subscribers in the Middle East increased by 48 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006, according to a new report published by industry research company RNCOS.
The report, titled ‘Middle East Broadband Forecast to 2010‘, said that ‘the region’s soaring broadband demand has been propelled by the inadequacy of existing broadband infrastructure, and government policies promoting rapid broadband adoption as a tool for economic development’.
Among the report’s other key findings:
- In 2007, Israel dominated the Middle East broadband market having major chunk of the broadband subscribers, followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE.
- Egypt is anticipated to report highest growth in its broadband subscriber base among the Middle Eastern countries at a CAGR of over 83% from 2008 to 2010.
- The total number of 3G subscribers in the Middle East is expected to surpass four million by 2010 end, growing at a CAGR of around 60%.
- Throughout the Middle East region, incumbent and alternative fixed-line operators are rolling out IPTV, helping the operators better maintain their main-line base and gradually increase spend per customer in the face of falling ADSL prices.
Amazon Joins Taufeer.com E-Channel Retailers Program
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 7, 2008 – 7:03 pm | 2 Comments
Taufeer.com, part of Riyadh-based Taufeer Information Systems LLC, a leading e-commerce service provider, today announced that amazon.com, one of the world’s largest online retailers, has joined Taufeer.com e-channel retailers program.
By using Taufeer.com e-channel service, amazon.com will be able to present its products and offers to millions of Ready-to-buy customers in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
‘We are very excited about signing up a mega retailer such as amazon.com to our e-channel program,’ said Yasser Abdullah, Founder and CEO of Taufeer.com.
‘After careful analysis and testing by amazon.com, our advanced comparison shopping service was selected for its simplicity and ease of integration with Amazon.com infrastructure,’ he added.
Starting with consumer electronics products, amazon.com will expand its offering on Taufeer.com to cover a large selection of products targeted for the Saudi market. Amazon.com has no presence in the Arab market and this represent the first step in bringing their collection and shopping experience to Middle East.
‘This is an important milestone in our strategy to be the first destination for online shoppers in the Middle East. Our service is suitable for all retailers, regardless of their current ecommerce deployment stage. So far, the feedback has been excellent and we expect to sign up a few major retailers in Saudi Arabia very shortly.’
Taufeer.com e-Channel service is aimed to help retailers jump start the challenges and technical difficulties and proceed to achieve significant returns without significant investment. Web retailers can also benefit from Taufeer.com shopping comparison to generate qualified sales leads to their online stores.
Middle East Has World’s Second Fastest Internet Traffic Growth
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 4, 2008 – 11:42 am | 1 Comment
According to a new study from TeleGeography, a telecommunications research and advisory firm, international internet traffic grew 53% between mid-2007 and mid-2008, down from 61% the preceding year.
The Middle East claims the second fastest internet traffic growth in the world, with a growth rate of 97% a year since 2005. South Asia, with its booming economies, comes in first place, with an average annual rate of 103%.
The slowest growing region of the world is North America, with a 57% annual growth rate.
For the second consecutive year, total international internet capacity grew faster than total internet traffic, leading to lower utilisation levels on many internet backbones. Between 2007 and 2008 average traffic utilisation levels decreased from 31% to 29%, while peak utilisation fell from 44% to 43%. The aggregate trend toward lower utilisation of capacity belies significant regional differences. While utilisation on international links to Europe and Asia fell in 2008, they rose in the US & Canada and Latin America where traffic growth outpaced the deployment of new internet bandwidth.
The Middle East is connected to the rest of the world by only a handful of undersea cables, and was hit hard by widespread internet blackouts in late January, after the simultaneous failure of some of these undersea cables located off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
Many major telecommunications company in the region are currently involved in a number of international cable projects, with more than $1 billion of investment, to augment internet capacity for the region.
Middle East Businesses Missing Out On Online Marketing Power
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | August 30, 2008 – 6:07 pm | 3 Comments
Middle East businesses could be taking far greater advantage of the marketing power of the Internet.
That was the message presented by Flip Media CEO, Yousef Tuqan, as he discussed the best ways for Qatar companies to build their web presence at this week’s QSTP TECHtalk.
Tuqan said: ‘Online advertising has been growing at more than 50% a year since 2004. Despite this frenetic increase the total last year came to just $35m, or less than 1% of what Middle East companies spend offline.’
On the plus side, he said, this low demand translates to low prices for online ads, an opportunity that Qatar companies can take advantage of. For example a life-insurance company in the US might pay $30 or more if someone clicks on their advertisement. In the Middle East, a company in the same industry may only have to pay a dollar or two.
Tuqan was presenting at a TECHtalk seminar hosted by Qatar Science & Technology Park. The bi-monthly seminars focus on the intersection between technology and business, and are open to the public.
Joining Tuqan in a panel discussion were ictQatar QCERT Center Director & Manager, Khalid Sadiq Al-Hashmi and Fuego General Manager, Karl Gretton. They agreed that although Qatar has one of the highest rates of Internet usage in the region, with 26% of the population now online, local businesses are not yet making the most of the web.
Tuqan said: ‘The most effective regional online advertising strategies take advantage of the latest technologies in relation to making users active participants instead of passive viewers, but within the social and cultural contexts of the region.’
He gave a case study of a Dubai property developer who set up a website where people could make good wishes for Ramadan. It attracted almost 40,000 participants in less than one month.
Yousef’s PowerPoint presentation is available here (PDF).
The Nine Deadly Startup Diseases
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | August 23, 2008 – 3:39 pm | 2 Comments
Building a successful startup is no easy feat; There are a number of problems that founders can face and that can hurt their startups, even fatally.
A really interesting article was published on Sitepoint recently about the nine deadly startup diseases and how they can be cured; I thought I’d share the nine points here in my own words.
The list of deadly diseases goes as follows:
1. The Imaginary User Syndrome: Having no idea who your target audience are will only lead to a lack of direction for your startup, many problems marketing it, and even possible failure. A core target audience has to be defined and reached out to.
2. The Frenetic Distraction Pox: Where time and effort is invested in the early days of a startup is very important; the obvious choice is on building the product, attracting users, reaching objectives; other non-essential tasks can wait for later.
3. The Wrong Hire Infection: Hiring the wrong people at the initial stages of a startup could prove very problematic and even fatal for it; a certain caliber of employees, commitment, skills and passion are really important.
4. The Implicit Promise Fever: Basing your startup on implicit agreements and assumptions with the co-founders and members without anything written down to clarify things like share percentages, voting rights, what do if there is a disagreement or if things don’t work out too well, can only lead to a bunch of problems that could haunt the startup.
5. The Stealth Product Delusion: Waiting as long as possible before starting to show the product to people for feedback under the pretext that it should be perfect is a mistake; the earlier people start giving feedback on the product, the earlier and easier you can factor their ideas into the product and know if you’re on the right track.
6. The Wrong Platform Fracture: Choosing the wrong platform (language, framework, technology) to build your product could come at a very costly price if at a later stage it turns out that it doesn’t fulfill all your needs, isn’t able to scale or isn’t flexible enough; so the decision should be a very well researched one before taking the leap into development.
7. The Other Interest Disorder: Working on other different projects or startups in parallel could prove fatal for a startup, especially in its initial phases of its life, when it needs all the time and effort it can get and more. Focus and dedication are of utmost importance.
8. The Perfection Hallucination: Perfectionism could hurt a startup more than it helps; it has to be balanced with a good deal of pragmatism to know just when the right point is to put the product or new feature out there for users and continue tweaking, enhancing and factoring in feedback later on.
9. The Marketing Blind Spot: The idea of ‘Build it, and they will come’, as enticing as it is, doesn’t always hold true; relying solely on word of mouth marketing could cost the startup its life; every startup needs a certain specific combination of marketing techniques to get through to people and builds its user base; all those techniques and options have to be explored.
You can read the full article with more details here: Nine Deadly Startup Diseases - and How to Cure Them.
Interview With Habib Haddad, Co-Founder Of Language Analytics LLC. / Yamli
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 21, 2008 – 11:40 am | 8 Comments
Habib Haddad & Imad Jureidini
Continuing our series of interviews with Arab entrepreneurs, we bring you our interview with Habib Haddad, co-founder of Language Analytics LLC., the company that brought us Yamli, the cool web-based transliteration tool that solves the problem of many Arab users who don’t have an Arabic keyboard or who aren’t as comfortable typing in Arabic.
I’d really like to start by thanking Habib for taking some of his time to answer our questions, generously providing details and insight about Yamli, how everything fell into place, where they’re taking it, as well as sharing some tips and advice for other entrepreneurs.
How did you get the idea to build a tool like Yamli?
The idea came from my personal frustration in interacting with the Arabic language on the Web. It seemed to me unreal that I, an Arabic native speaker, had difficulty using my own language on the web. Living in Boston, access to an Arabic keyboard is not very easy especially when you are on your desk at work and want to search for news in Arabic. Even when I lived in Lebanon my interaction with the Arabic keyboard was limited, which is sad but it is the case with a large number of Arabic internet users. In fact, studies at the American University in Cairo shows that 78% of Arabic internet users have never typed in Arabic! Imagine if 78% of French never typed in French. Imagine how destructive that would be for the language on the web and how limiting it would be for local businesses, entrepreneurs and even publishers.
Could you tell us more about the steps you went through to make Yamli a reality?
Form the team: I was happy to have Imad Jureidini, a colleague from a previous startup to join me as a co-founder. My advice here is to pick someone who complements you, excel at what they do, who you enjoy hanging out with, and look for someone you think is smarter than you.
Identify the vision and goals: This is the thing that says that if we don’t get anything else right, this is what we’re going to do well and really excel at it.
This to me is the most important step and is broken down into multiple steps:
- Listen to your users’ problems: We spoke to potential real users (friends and family) to get a feeling on how they view the ideal solution for this problem. It’s amazing how unexpectedly unhelpful this was. Basically users don’t know the best solution to their problems, but they know what problems they have. Instead of asking what users want, try listening to their problems.
- Know your REAL competition: Transliteration in general, and even in the case of Arabic, is not a new concept but we felt it had not been solved the right way. There were a few tools out there that solved this problem by requiring the user to learn a one to one mapping table. However our real competition was the English keyboard. We wanted to come up with a solution appealing enough to convince the user, who is not accustomed to typing in Arabic, that now he can actually do it, that he can type real Arabic words using Yamli with no extra effort.
- Our vision:
- Accurate solution that does not require the effort of learning from the users and that “magically” finds the right word.
- Seamless solution, drop dead simple to start typing and not even feel an extra layer.
- Available to all users (API)
Interview With Twffaha Co-Founder & CEO Ashraf Mansoor
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 14, 2008 – 11:03 am | 2 Comments
Before anything, I’d really like to thank Ashraf Mansoor, the co-founder and CEO of Twffaha, the job portal for Arab women, which was previously reviewed here, for taking some of his time to answer our questions about Twffaha, and give us more insight into the startup, how things have been going so far, as well as sharing some tips and advice for other entrepreneurs.
How would you describe Twffaha in your own words?
Twffaha is an endeavor to endorse and promote recruiting women in the Middle East. It is an online job portal that strives to provide women job seekers with state-of-the art tools, and tips that will help them unearth jobs in accordance with their skills and qualifications. A platform for employers to land their next greatest prospect, and a belief that women are an underrated asset that if recruited properly will guide to economic growth and sustainability in the Middle East.
How did you get the idea for Twffaha? And what made you feel passionate about this specific idea?
The idea for Twffaha came in late 2007. We came across different studies that showed the rate of recruiting women in the region is far beyond the international rates. At the time we were designing a job portal for a different purpose, and then we thought we need to find a niche in order to compete with the numerous job portals in the market, that’s when we decided to launch an exclusive women job portal, and came up with the name Twffaha.
What difficulties or challenges did you face making Twffaha a reality?
As an Arabic startup you are destined to face challenges. The atmosphere is not conductive for startups. One of the problems was finding the right people who believed in the idea and who can be a driving force. We also encountered major outages during our public beta that forced us to reconsider our infrastructure, and find new reliable partners. We believe problems are an integral part of a startup structure, so we embrace them.
