July 2008 – Page 3 – StartUpArabia

Sukuk.net, Online Islamic Finance Portal

July 15, 2008July 15, 2008 MMM 1 Comment

Sukuk.net is a new online financial portal dedicated to “Sukuk” (Islamic Bonds), and Islamic financing, that aims to be the definitive source of information on the global Sukuk market and the premier online destination for the Sukuk industry providing investors, financial services professionals, researchers and institutions with up to date market information.

It also hopes to go one step further by providing investors with all the tools necessary to understand the market and analyse the competition and market data; and assisting firms in developing strategies, market forecasting and identifying new business and investment opportunities.

Users can track global Sukuk activity, market data and register for market tracking analysis tools. The website’s Sukuk Wire also provides an up to the minute feed of the latest news and information on global Sukuk.

The launch of this portal is in response to a growing number of investors and enterprises seeking Shariah compliant funding and general public interest in Islamic finance; The Sukuk market, in particular, is seeing rapid growth and Sukuk paper has the advantage of competitive pricing as a risk-mitigation structure.

Sukuk.net is a Dubai and Jeddah based initiative formed through a joint venture between Siraj Capital Ltd., a leading Saudi based Islamic asset management company, and alClick Ltd., a leading provider of online advertising and marketing services in the Gulf region.

# Sukuk.net

Interview With Twffaha Co-Founder & CEO Ashraf Mansoor

July 14, 2008July 14, 2008 MMM 4 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.

The True Entrepreneur Is A Doer Not A Dreamer

July 12, 2008July 12, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

— Nolan Bushnell ; founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

Middle East & Africa Mobile Revenues To Hit $107 Billion By 2013

July 11, 2008July 11, 2008 MMM 1 Comment

Mobiles Operator-billed service revenues across the Africa & Middle East region are expected to rise to more than $107 billion in 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that growth would be driven by mobile data services, fueled by the greater availability and wider variety of rich-media content coupled with lower browsing costs.

However, it noted that regional operator-billed voice revenues were likely to peak in 2011 and would subsequently fall away due to increasingly competitive pricing in that sector.

Other findings from the Juniper Research report include:

The Middle East/Africa mobile user base is to grow at an average annual rate of 10.5% between 2008 and 2013.

Mobile data services are expected to contribute 24% of operator-billed service revenues in 2013, against just 9% in 2008.

Saudi Arabia will provide the largest share of cumulative regional revenues over the forecast period, followed by Nigeria.

The detailed report provides in-depth coverage and forecasts for six key Africa & Middle East markets (Egypt, Israel, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates) as well as for the region as a whole. It also includes regional overviews for key revenue drivers including mobile advertising, mobile entertainment services, mobile financial services and mobile ticketing.

Whitepapers and further details of the study ‘Mobile Africa & Middle East: Opportunities, Markets & Forecasts 2008-2013’ can be freely downloaded from Juniper Research.

If anything, I think these numbers show the potential the mobile data services market in the Middle East and Africa holds, and that it could be a very lucrative market for startups in the region, who can use the growth in this sector to fuel their own business growth.

# Juniper Research Press Release

MBR Foundation Center For Entrepreneurship and Innovation In American University Of Beirut

July 10, 2008July 10, 2008 MMM

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation today announced plans to establish a new center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon, as part of its continuous efforts to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship in the Arab world.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, aiming to serve as a regional nucleus for entrepreneurship research and knowledge dissemination in the Arab world, will be established in collaboration with AUB with an endowment of AED18.3 million (nearly US$5 million).

Under the agreement, the Foundation and AUB’s Olayan School of Business will combine forces to support and develop entrepreneurship-related research, training material and expertise in the Arab world. Through the new centre, the Foundation and AUB will also work towards enhancing regional business capabilities, leading to a better understanding of current and future entrepreneurial activity and challenges in the region.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation will develop and provide research and training materials fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in the Arab World, thereby contributing to creating conditions conducive to furthering employment and supporting economic activity across the region. Additionally, it will conduct regional entrepreneurship studies to identify barriers to entrepreneurship that individuals, business leaders, corporations and governments can help alleviate.

The center will also serve as a knowledge center for e-students, entrepreneurs and policy-makers by providing entrepreneurship sector analysis, country analysis, profiling and policy recommendations, regular data surveys, as well as relevant business case studies.

Operating as an open source institution for its published output, the centre will offer access to its resources to eligible entrepreneurs, researchers and relevant stakeholders as determined through mutually agreed criteria set by the Foundation and the AUB.

Aimed at promoting job growth and business creation in the region, the Foundation seeks to develop entrepreneurship programmes that facilitate business mentorship, expertise and services among successful and aspiring entrepreneurs. In developing a series of related programmes that support young businesses, the Foundation aims to assist emerging entrepreneurs to explore, identify and seize potential business opportunities across the Arab world.

As part of its efforts to support regional centres dedicated to advancing business education and supporting young enterprises, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation recently signed key partnership agreements with a number of leading organisations and educational bodies across the Arab world including the Dubai-based Young Arab Leaders (YAL), Al Akhawayan University in Morocco, and the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) in Palestine.

# More: Zawya

Questler Online Learning Network Launches New Version

July 9, 2008July 9, 2008 MMM

Questler, the online learning and knowledge network, just launched a new version of their service today, with a sleeker looking logo and a new navigation system.

This new version brings a number of changes beyond the design, like:

Channels: New channel pages have been introduced for each user, where you can browse all their contributions, whether quests or comments, per their learning interests or all tags of their posts. Users can go to their settings to customize the design of their own channel.
They plan to launch specialized channels from companies and organizations that have quests to share soon.

RSS Feeds: It is now possible to subscribe to Questler’s everyone feed, as well as to RSS feeds for any specific user channel. RSS feeds are also available for tags and keyword searches, enabling you to follow topics of interest to you.

Extra Tagging: Now everyone can add more tags to any quest when they post a comment on it, this way other users will be able to filter through the Quest View page to see their comments per tags they’ve added.

Quest creation from a comment: Users can now post a comment on a certain a quest as a new Quest; the two will be linked and can be viewed in the Related Quests tab.

Related Quests: When viewing a quest’s details, all related quests will be listed on the same page, enabling interested users to further explore the topic. Recent quests as well as latest quests by the same user are also available now.

Home/Dashboard: To make posting quests easier, it is no longer necessary to go to the quest page to post, it can be done directly from the home page. A new dashboard also helps browse through the latest conversations quickly.

Another detail worth mentioning is that the Beta moniker has been dropped from this version, which does feel more mature as an online service, more organized and better rounded at the corners.

# Questler

WeNear, Location Based Services Framework

July 8, 2008July 8, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

WeNear is a new framework for location based services, which aims to help connect users with their interests.

With the widespread use of mobile phones and other mobile devices in the Arab world, weNear comes to enrich the mobile experience even more, beyond just making phone calls and sending sms messages, by providing a platform for location based social and business services.

As an example of one of the social uses, based on a user’s location, the service will be able to identify other weNear users that were marked as friends, and locate them on the map; making it a lot easier to find and reach them. Of course, a privacy option is built in to hide a user’s location whenever they want.

Through weNear, users will also be able to socially interact and communicate with other nearby users, announcing interest-based information and sending tagged messages which will be received by those whose interests match these tags.

When it comes to business uses, weNear users can receive immediate notifications with information about interesting nearby services, events or products; creating new chances for advertisers to connect with potential clients based on their location and their interests.

Another example Implementation is “Almotawef”, which is an application for Muslim pilgrims, that helps them find their relatives and groups during Hajj, walks them through the Hajj rituals and points them to the places they have to go to.

weNear was developed by Egyptian company eSpace.

# WeNear

Net Monitor Ipoque Finds Big Gaps Between West And Middle East Internet Activity

July 7, 2008July 7, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

Ipoque, a part-time researcher of Internet activity and trends headquartered in Leipzig, Germany, recently released the findings of a study conducted between August and September 2007, in which it observed Internet traffic in five regions of the world, to establish an overview of the Internet’s current state.

Three petabytes of anonymous data representing over one million users in Australia, Eastern Europe, Germany, the Middle East and Southern Europe were analyzed as part of the study.

According to the study, P2P is still producing more traffic in the Internet then all other applications combined. Its average proportion during the measurement period regionally varies between 49% in the Middle East and 83% in Eastern Europe.

By studying the complete protocol distribution for Germany and the Middle East; the results found that in both regions, Web browsing accounts for the the second-most traffic with a share of 26% in the Middle East and 10% in Germany; not including any audio or video streaming content.

Media streaming content ranks third in Germany with a proportion of about 8%; In the Middle East it is negligible with less than 0.1%. Possible reasons include lower-speed Internet access and less media-rich content on local-language Web sites.

The third position in the Middle East and the fourth in Germany is taken by direct download links file sharing websites such as RapidShare.com and MegaUpload.com; 62 of these one-click file hosting services were studied, and they account for nearly 9% of the Internet traffic in the Middle East and over 4% in Germany.

When it comes to VoIP (Voice over IP), the results show that 30% of all monitored Internet users in Germany use Skype. In the Middle East, the number is only 7%; SIP follows far behind with only 1% users in Germany and in the Middle East; as for other systems, the numbers are negligible.

# Source: ipoque Internet Study 2007
# Via: Mashable

Places.ae Dubai Location Based Directory Goes Mobile

July 6, 2008July 6, 2008 MMM 10 Comments

Places.ae, the Dubai location based directory, previously reviewed here, have taken their service one step further, officially launching the mobile version of their service at http://m.places.ae

The mobile version has been under development and test for a while now, and now that BlackBerry support has been integrated into it, it has been launched officially.

This mobile version also supports iPhone and Windows Mobile clients, with an even more optimized interface as their browsers and UI are better than those of the BlackBerry; as well as any mobile device that can read HTML pages.

However, if you have a BlackBerry equipped with GPS, it’s even easier to find places you’re looking for, as place.ae will use the information from the GPS satellites to know where you are and find a list of places that are closest to your current location.

If you click on one of the entries in the list, you will see a little static map of the place, and as phone numbers of the places are often detected, it’s easy to call a place to ask for other details or make a reservation if necessary.

For more details on how to use a GPS-enabled BlackBerry with Places.ae, you can check out the details and instructions on the Places.ae Blog.