Jawaker Adds To Advertising Options With Game Table Changes

MMM 2 Comments

Jawaker

Jawaker, the online multiplayer card games website that was previously reviewed here, and whose co-founder Mohamad Haj Hasan was interviewed here, has introduced some new changes to their game table, expanding the available advertising options on the platform.

The upgrades on the game table aimed to make it more user friendly for users, but also to adapt to the needs of their advertising clients.

Among the major changes on the game table is a re-organization of certain elements like the information bar and chat box, to make it easier for users to see more information in a more convenient way.

But more importantly, in addition to their original ad serving model of branding the back of cards, they’ve introduced the possibility to have a watermarked logo of the brand on the game table itself as well as a text ad on the right side of the table that pushes the message that the advertiser wants to relay to their audience. This text ad has a link to the advertisers target URL.

Jawaker Table

Jawaker currently have the popular cards games: Trix, Trix Complex, Solitaire and Tarneeb; and plan to roll out more multi-player card games in the future.

Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship Organises The Entrepreneurs Week – May 16-21 (Amman, Jordan)

MMM

QRCEThe Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship is organizing a really interesting event ‘The Entrepreneurs Week‘ between 16th-21st of May, in Amman, Jordan.

The event aims to open an interactive discussion with a number of interesting international speakers who will speak about several important topics in Entrepreneurship, Business and Management.

The topics to be discussed are the following:

  • BlueOcean Strategy: How to transform a new business idea into a winning strategy
    Speaker: Mohammad Ajlouni (Managing Director, MDS)
      
  • Identifying your Strengths as an Entrepreneur
    Speaker: Ronald Evans (CEO, SIMA International)
      
  • Idea to Reality
    Speaker: Habib Haddad (Co-Founder, Yamli.com)
      
  • Innovation in Open Networks – Perspectives from an Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist
    Speaker: Joi Ito (CEO, Creative Commons)
      
  • Cross-cultural business issues as companies expand internationally
    Speaker: Doug Christgau (Director, Cross-Cultural Development)
      
  • The current U.S. and world financial market situation.
    Speaker: Larry Hutchins (Certified Financial Planner, Wachovia)
      
  • Insights into family-owned companies in regards to economic and human resource issues.
    Speaker: John Carmon (President, Carmon Community Funeral Homes)

The event is free of charge. For registration or any further information, you can check out their website http://www.qrce.org/eweek or call +962 6 515 4892.

If you’re registered to the StartUpArabia Events iCal feed in your calendar software, the event should already be showing up in your calendar for the days of the event.

Tunisie Telecom To Launch Venture Capital Arm ‘Diva Sicar’

MMM

Tunisie TelecomMontassar Ouaili, the CEO of Tunisie Telecom, the first Tunisian telecom operator in Tunisia, recently announced that the company will be launching a venture capital arm in partnership with STB Bank and BH Bank.

The new venture will be called “Diva Sicar“, and will be officially established as a subsidiary of Tunisie Telecom on May 19th.

It will have 20 Million Tunisian Dinars ($US 14 Million) in capital, and will be concentrating on projects in the development, innovation and value-added services areas.

Tunisiana, which is Tunisie Telecom’s only competitor so far in the mobile space, also recently announced a new fund for value-added services.

Tunisie Telecom is 65% owned by the Tunisian state, with the remaining 35% owned by TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, which they acquired in 2006.

Conservus International Wins Red Herring 100 Europe Award

MMM

ConservusRed Herring recently announced that Conservus International was named a winner of the Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

Conservus International is responsible for the conceptualization, design and development of a digital targeted advertising medium known as the MyConservus Portal.

The MyConservus Portal is an e-concierge service which highlights services available at a single location and provides advertisers with direct access to potential consumers while generating revenue from these advertisements.

Conservus International has similar e-concierge portals that can be used in the Hospitality, Business and Community sectors, and seeks to expand the MyConservus portal’s reach internationally by entering into potential franchise discussions with technology companies.

Conservus was one of the three UAE based technology companies that got an investment from Intel Capital earlier this year, and are also an IV Holdings portfolio company.

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Hotels.com Launches Arabic Website For The Middle East

MMM 9 Comments

Hotels.comHotels.com, one of the leading hotel accommodation booking sites in the world, has announced the launch of its Arabic website in the Middle East.  The website is available at http://fanadeq.hotels.com and uses IP based country recognition, an Arabic-language interface and local currency pricing and payment methods.

Hotels.com, is part of the Expedia group, and currently operates 52 global sites. Expedia announced in the summer of last year that it would be launching a dedicated travel portal for the Middle East within the following 12 months, and it seems this is the result of that effort.

Covering the key markets in the Middle East, the new website aims to offer competitive, value for money rates at over 100,000 hotels worldwide. As well as the hotel booking function, the site also offers in-depth hotel information including Microsoft mapping capabilities and property facility information. The site also includes destination information and customers reviews all in Arabic.

Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director of Hotels.com commented, “By launching our new website in Arabic, we are committed to unlocking the full potential of the Middle East market. Our goal is to offer our customers an accommodation booking service with extensive choices, great value prices and excellent customer service.”

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) barometer, the Middle East is already the world’s largest driver of travel, tourism and hospitality, with the sector fuelling the region’s current annual tourism growth of 11% per annum.

The Middle East has seen a steady growth in e-commerce over the last few years with an increasing number of consumers using the internet to buy products and services. One of the fastest growing categories for e-commerce across the globe is travel as customers are increasingly choosing the internet to look for the best deals.

Online Media Creativity Workshop – Amman, Jordan (18-22 May)

MMM 1 Comment

The Royal Film Commission of Jordan and Creative Commons, in cooperation with the SAE Institute in Jordan, are launching the first “Online Media Creativity” workshop to be held in Amman, Jordan.

The free workshop will be held from the 18th till the 22nd of May 2009 at the SAE Institute, for four hours daily from 1:00 pm till 5:00 pm, during which both theoretical and practical instruction will be offered.

Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, is going to conduct the workshop, which is developed in cooperation with Royal Film Commission of Jordan.

The workshop is the first of its kind in the Arab world, and will be dealing with issues like how to produce and distribute an audiovisual with the help of social media and networks. It is open to all Arabs of all nationalities and countries (they just have to make it to Jordan).

This step comes to try and open the field of cinema and traditional audiovisual production to new media and try to understand how creativity could be improved through peer-production and network distribution by using open licenses such as Creative Commons.

Participants will benefit from Joichi Ito’s extensive media expertise in:

  1. Acquiring knowledge on the major changes occurring in the audiovisual field with the advent of digital media.
  2. Acquiring necessary technical skills to start producing and distributing one’s own digital media.
  3. Enabling young Arabs to professionally produce online content and share it with the rest of the world.

To apply, you should email the following to programs@film.jo:

  1. A personal resume, indicating any relevant previous experience.
  2. A cover letter indicating, in at least 100 words, the reason for applying.
  3. Clearly including your name, email and telephone number.

Deadline for submission is Tuesday 12th of May 2009.
For more information, you can contact the Royal Film Commission on: +962 6 461 3835 Ext. 101

[Via: mediaoriente]

KuWeet, Your Window To Kuwaiti Tweets

MMM 3 Comments

One of the biggest factors of Twitter’s success and popularity is the wealth of third party tools and solutions built around it and using its API.

Just recently, I came across an interesting little project built around Twitter that aims to open a window on tweets coming out of Kuwait, and about Kuwait, by the name of KuWeet.

The way it was built is really simple: an account @kuweet was created for twitter users in Kuwait to follow, and then what happens is that all followers of this account are collected and placed in a list. All tweets originating from people on this list are then aggregated into a a public timeline of Twitter users from and about Kuwait.

kuweet

According to its developer, it’s based on an integration of Twitter2html into WordPress, with a theme that is pretty much identical to the Twitter interface.

New tweets are fetched every 10 minutes through a planned cron process.

KuWeet is a project by well-known Kuwaiti blogger and tweeter @nibaq.

Tunisiana Launches A New Fund For Value-Added Services

MMM 1 Comment

TunisianaTunisiana, the first private mobile operator in Tunisia,  just announced the launch of a fund for value-added services projects.

This move follows the recent publication of a new law in Tunisia relating to the sharing of revenue between telecom operators and value-added services providers.

So in an effort to empower and encourage more entrepreneurs and startups to launch such value-added services, it has created this fund, wherein each project can benefit of up to 30,000 Tunisian Dinars of funding.

The announcement of the fund was made a few days ago at the opening of Tunisiana’s value-added services event where a number of new services were announced by a number of companies, mainly in the areas of business solutions, entertainment and accessibility.

It’s a really smart and welcome move by Tunisiana, and it should be interesting to follow and see how well it goes and how many projects will see the light of day because of it.

I definitely think it’s a model other mobile operators around the Arab world should experiment with for the benefit of everyone: theirselves, these new businesses and their clients.

[Source: WebManagerCenter]

BarCamp Tunisie, Al Ghazela Technology Park, May 9th 2009

MMM 7 Comments

BarCamp TunisieTunisia will be soon be getting its first BarCamp event, that will be held at the Al Ghazela Technology Park (Hannibal Hall) on May 9th 2009 starting at 9:00 AM.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering, born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. These events are quite intense with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

A number of Tunisian entrepreneurs will be at the event talking about their startups and demoing their products and services, then opening a discussion about them with the attendees.

The startups that are confirmed to be demoing at the first Tunisian BarCamp so far are the following:

  • Keejob: A new Tunisian job portal. (Demo by: Amira Mimouni)
  • Wezign: A Tunisian web & graphic design agency. (Demo by: Kais Ben Sedrine)
  • Resto Tunisie: A community powered directory of restaurants in Tunisia, previously reviewed here. (Demo by: Kais Ezzine)
  • Tools4Com: A simple online invoicing system, previously reviewed here. (Demo by: Mohamed Aymen Ben Abdallah)
  • Twitterists: A service that lists and watches celebrities on Twitter. (Demo by: Mohamed Ben Dhaou)
  • Je révise: A course revision service for college students. (Demo by: Myriam Sfar)
  • Markkit: A web 2.0 text highlighter, previously reviewed here. (Demo by: Slim Amamou)

People interested in participating can sign up through the following form: BarCamp Tunisie Sign-up Form.

For more information and details about BarCamp Tunisie, you can check out the following page: BarCamp Tunisie (FR).

If you’re registered to the StartUpArabia Events iCal feed in your calendar software, the event should already be showing up in your calendar for that day.

The event is being organized by my friend Mehdi Lamloum.

Interview with Dan Stuart, Managing Partner At Intilaq

MMM 2 Comments

Dan StuartOne of the most interesting developments that have taken place recently in the internet entrepreneurship and venture capital space in the Arab world has been the launch of Bayt’s venture capital arm “Intilaq”.

To get even more details about this exciting bit of news, I got to ask Dan Stuart, who is Head of strategic initiatives at Bayt and a Managing Partner at Intilaq, a few questions about it all; why they’re doing it, why now, where they’re going and more.

I’d like to thank him very much for taking some of his time to answer these questions and provide us all with more insight into this new venture.

What made Bayt decide to move into the venture capital space?
The vision and mission of Bayt.com don’t say anything about being strictly a job site, per se. From the outset, the founders were focused on creating a Middle Eastern institution that empowers people in the region to build better lives. Jobs were the primary focus because of their direct impact on lifestyle – and we have maintained a firm leadership positioning in that domain as measured by any parameter – but from the outset we recognized that there are many other opportunities to better people’s lives in the Middle East. Combine this affinity to the people of the region with a first-hand understanding of the unique needs of the region as well as the challenges in starting a business in the region, and add to that a strong desire to expand our scope and invest the capital reserves that we have built over time, and we decided that an investment arm was the logical next step.

Why did you choose to do it now?
There has never been a better time to start an online business in the Middle East. Internet penetration is skyrocketing, there is a huge bubble in regional demographics at the youth level, successful online business models are prevalent globally, but still relatively nascent regionally, and agile and open source technologies are making it easier to put vision into reality. Inefficient processes are ripe for disruption, and with funding and mentorship, we think that there is great potential for not only local/regional Internet successes to emerge, but truly global leaders. There is no reason that a Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Facebook, Baidu, Salesforce, or other online tech leader cannot – and should not – emerge from the MENA region.

Read More