Price Finder: A new way to shop for insurance in the #UAE
Back in April we covered Democamp Dubai and one of the demos that caught my attention was Pricefinder which is a comprehensive insurance comparison website. Initially the demo displayed was functional however the design was still not there. That’s not the issue anymore, they have completely revamped the design and now are in the final stages of testing and should go live to the public within a week or two. I had a chance to meet with one of... Read More
Confirmed: Gonabit acquired by Livingsocial?
Rumor has it that Living social, the international brand and social buying company headquartered in Washington, D.C. has finalized a deal with Gonabit, the oldest group buying website in the Middle East backed by Bayt.com. The deal is still unconfirmed, but if what I heard is true than Gonabit looks to be selling somewhere between 40 – 60% stake in the company for a price tag in the region of USD$15 – 20 Million. Not bad for a company... Read More
Report: Young Arab Citizens and Govenments on Social Networks
An interesting report published by Youngberry and ThinkMedia Labs highlights what would Arab youth love or hate about their governments presence on social media networks. The report was conducted by surveying 309 respondents who are all Arabic speakers residing in the MENA region between the ages of 12 – 29 all of whom claim to have an active Facebook account. Here are some of the interesting findings from the report: 42% of respondents would... Read More
Twitter Usage in the MENA region
Following up on the last post about the Facebook statistics in the Arab world, here will display the findings from Dubai’s school of government results regarding Twitter usage in the Arab world published in their second release of their Arab Social Media Report. Here’s an overview of the major points: At the end of the first quarter of 2011, the number of tweets had risen to 155 million a day, up from 55 million a day around the same... Read More
Latest Facebook Statistics in the #MENA (Q1 2011)
We have been talking a lot lately about the second release of the Arab Social Media Report developed by the Dubai School of Government and even though they had some information and numbers released on the site now the entire report is available for download. Below we are going to highlight some of the main points and graphs revealed in the report from Facebook and we will follow up with another post focusing only on Twitter in order to keep it... Read More
New Ventures from the #MENA: Alhodhud
Last month I was following the coverage of Democamp Amman on Twitter and read about some really good ideas, I thought I would get in touch with some of the people that were presenting their demo’s. I got in touch with AlHudhod and got a response from Mohammed Al-Bishtawi one of the Co-Founders and he was very happy to answer a few questions to give us a little bit more insight on what he and demoed. Background: Q1) What is AlHodhud? Alhodhud... Read More
Reminder for the Government Social Media Conference Tomorrow
With all the talk about the second release of the Arab Social Media report prepared by the Dubai School of Government to be released soon, it is likely that we will get more information and numbers tomorrow. If you haven’t registered yet you can do so on the Government Social Media Conference registration page, but hurry because the event will be carried out tomorrow June 7 till the 8th in Al Murooj Rotana, Dubai. Read More
1 on 1 with Mishaal AlGergawi UAE’s Social Media Expert (Part 2 of 2):
This article is a continuation of the discussion held here in part 1 With Mishaal AlGergawi, and is sponsored by the Government Social Media Conference (@govsmc) taking place in Dubai on June 7th – 8th. After discussing how Mishaal felt about his personal experiences with Twitter we then moved on to discuss the state of Social Media in the region and especially in the government sector. I asked him whether if he thought social media was on the... Read More
15% discount on Econsultancy training courses in #Dubai
It’s been busy here in Dubai, just yesterday we were covering a social media conference and after talking to almost everybody at the conference I must admit only a small number of people found it beneficial but I can say there was a bigger number still not convinced and were still looking for more help with social media (we will cover that in a later article) but if you plan or would like some of your friends (Ahem… clients) to receive... Read More
The Best Online Stores in the UAE
I spend hours online everyday testing the boundaries of the internet, making millions of conscious and unconscious impressions. Each time I find an unknown digital gem, the nerdy kid inside me giggles as I share it with my social network. It’s like finding little presents – uncovering precious needles in an ever-expanding haystack. I realize that most people do not share my geeky joy (my clients definitely do not), so to them I often... Read More
The rise of Mobile in the MENA
Last week we posted an article about some interesting information released by Effective Measure regarding mobile internet consumption in the MENA region. Apparently brands in the region have noticed this trend and have started reacting to this consumer need by producing either mobile apps or mobile websites to connect with users on the go. The latest company to do so is Dubizzle, they have launched their mobile website dubai.dubizzle.com/m earlier... Read More
VoilaDubai: A new discovery & sharing engine in Dubai
Last week I came across a new startup from Dubai, called VoilaDubai, it was a neat looking website and had some interesting content but you could tell that it was either recently launched or not well managed. So I decided to get in touch with them to see what was going on and it turns out that the site had just recently launched, and I’d say that the website is managed pretty well just from the level of responsiveness I got from Farah... Read More
Dont forget the Middle East Social Media Marketing Conference on May 29
It’s almost here the Middle East Social Media Marketing Conference organized by marcusevans will be held next Sunday 29 – 30 May at the Hyatt Regency Dubai Hotel, Dubai, UAE. We have already talked to two of the experts that will be present at the conference, but there will be many more who will share their knowledge and provide a local insight. Take a look at the list below: Ibrahim Elbadawi, Strategic Planning Specialist – Emirates... Read More
Meet the Geek: Osama Romoh
We’ve had the pleasure of meeting Osama Romoh (@osamaromoh), who is a prominent Jordanian Blogger at osamaa.com with over 1,800+ Followers on twitter and with more than 13,900K likes on his facebook page. Osama now works in Dubai with Dubizzle where he is the Digital Marketing manager, we thought we’d share his wisdom with the world when it comes to Digital marketing so we sent him a couple of questions and he gracefully replied. Below... Read More
Red bull going Viral!
There are some funny videos flying around on the web and especially social networks titled I dare you not laugh, and they feature a professional driver scaring the life out of seemingly ordinary passengers with him. When I first saw it the red bull cap drew my attention, but I didn’t think of it much I thought it was some sort of red bull stunt. But then I read an article on Youngeberry’s blog, stating that in fact there is a campaign... Read More
Be surprised? More like Be Confused! #Fail
Last week at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, there was a mysterious looking stand in the main atrium with a giant block of mud and two people in lab coats kept padding it down and scrapping away at it. I was kind of curious as to what it was so I went and asked them what this big block of mud was doing in the middle of the Mall. They were very secretive saying they are working on molding a vehicle but they wouldn’t say who the manufacturer... Read More
Confessions of a social media expert: Arto Joensuu
This article is sponsored by the marcusevans Middle East Social Media Marketing conference that will take place on the 29th & 30th of May in Dubai. We will be writing more articles in this format leading up to the conference where we will ask the expert speakers of the conference different questions related to social media and in the MENA region. Our second expert is Arto Joensuu. Arto Joensuu is the Head of Digital Marketing, Middle East and... Read More
Middle Eastern countries growth on Facebook last month
A new article released on Inside Facebook today gives an interesting look about the traffic on Facebook from the Middle Eastern countries. And although there were upto 7 countries which have gained 100,000 users in the past month there is a bit of surprising and unexpected loss of users in a couple of the major countries of the region. Below is the chart prepared by Inside Facebook, as you can see Egypt is leading the pack with 500K users as previously... Read More
Confessions of a social expert with Racha Mourtada
This article is sponsored by the marcusevans Middle East Social Media Marketing conference that will take place on the 29th & 30th of May in Dubai. We will be writing more articles in this format leading up to the conference where we will ask the expert speakers of the conference different questions related to social media and in the MENA region. Our first expert is Racha Mourtada. Racha Mourtada is a Research Associate with the Governance and... Read More
Hsoub new startup Focusing on the MENA
I recently found out about a startup called Hsoub founded by group of students studying in the United Kingdom. It is an internet-advertising solution that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, aiming to connect advertisers with publishers from the MENA. Hsoub Ads works in similar way to Google Adsense and is very simple to use with a clean user interface, it is built to help businesses to enter the MENA market by advertising in high-quality... Read More
