August 2008 – Page 3 – StartUpArabia

Souq.com Stores Proving An E-Commerce Success In The UAE

August 5, 2008August 5, 2008 MMM 10 Comments

Souq.com Stores, a service launched by Souq.com early this year, and that allows businesses and individuals to set up their own exclusive online merchandise stores to showcase and sell products at fixed prices, is proving to be a big success in the e-commerce scene in the UAE, with a number of big-ticket companies, small business owners and individual traders turning to the e-stores to broaden their market reach and achieve instant results.

Businesses and individuals setting up shop on Souq.com Stores stand to benefit from the extensive customer base already present on Souq.com, which is currently the largest online marketplace operating in the UAE, allowing them to market their products to a pre-existing community of consumers and achieve quick turnover with minimal upfront investment.

Souq Stores already features over 70 stores that trade in Arts & Collectibles, Books, Clothing, Games & Gadgets, Jewelry, Mobiles & Accessories, Computers and Consumer Electronics among others. Large companies including Cellucom and RadioShack have signed up to operate their own stores on Souq.com as well.

The Souq Stores feature offers customized branded pages through which sellers can showcase all their listings under their own Souq.com store. Souq.com also offers customized and tailored solutions to businesses for their stores, based on their own specific requirements.

Souq.com members trading on Souq Stores will continue to enjoy free delivery of goods within the UAE and benefit from Souq.com’s varied secure payment and delivery options.

With over 140,000 registered users and over 270,000 unique visitors a month, Souq.com has emerged as the premier online marketplace in the region. It recorded over 8.4 million page views in the month of July 2008.

Souq.com is a subsidiary of Maktoob Group.

# Souq.com Stores

StartUpArabia Officially Launches Job Board

August 4, 2008August 4, 2008 MMM 8 Comments

Today, I’m glad to announce the official launch of the StartUpArabia Job Board.

The goal of this job board is to help people who share the same entrepreneurial mentality and startup spirit get together to work and produce great products and services.

From my experience working with different companies and startups, and with people working in them from developers, to designers, to other specialties; I believe that not everyone is really cut out for or even interested in working at a startup, where a certain level of creativity, involvement, excitement, commitment and “geekism” is needed.

A lot of time is often lost looking for good candidates for this or that position, or having to deal with people who just don’t fit into the whole spirit of a startup, …etc.

The goal of this job board is to connect the readers of this blog from both sides: the entrepreneurs looking to recruit, or the developers/designers/managers/salespeople …etc that are interested in startups and in working with them.

For the launch period of this job board, posting job vacancies is open for FREE for all technology startups and companies operating in the Arab world.

There already are a number of posted vacancies from the likes of Questler, Argaam and even Google Middle East.

One last thing I’d like to add is that this job board is in no way meant to compete with the other Arab career and employment portals out there; they obviously offer a great added value to many companies and job seekers around the Arab world, and will continue to do so. The StartUpArabia Job Board only attempts to help companies and job seekers in the startup culture niche connect and work together.

# StartUpArabia Job Board

D1G Acquires Popular Jordanian Forum E7ki

August 3, 2008August 3, 2008 MMM 10 Comments

D1G recently announced that it has acquired the popular Jordanian forum “E7ki“, one of the biggest in Jordan, to integrate it into the D1G network of websites.

The E7ki forum now operates under the D1G domain name, and is now in public beta, awaiting to be relaunched with a new design and more features.

E7ki is the fifth acquisition by D1G after websites like: “Ya Sater”, 7asnaa, 66g and “Seen Jeem”.

This acquisition follows a trend that some Arab web companies like D1G, Maktoob and others are following; acquiring popular websites and forums to quickly boost their number of users, as well as the page views and visits they generate, in order to attract more online advertisers, thereby generating more advertising income for them.

Ideas Need Immediate Action

August 2, 2008August 2, 2008 MMM

“Most ideas are stillborn and need the breath of life injected into them through definite plans of immediate action. The time to nurse an idea is at the time of it’s birth. Every minute it lives gives it a better chance of surviving. The fear of criticism is at the bottom of the destruction of most ideas that never reach the planning and action stage.

— Napoleon Hill ; ‘Think and Grow Rich‘

Cinéma Tunisien, The Portal For Tunisian Cinema

August 1, 2008August 1, 2008 MMM

Cinéma Tunisien is a recently launched portal dedicated to Cinema in Tunisia.

The portal aims to be an online database of information on Tunisian movies, directors, actors, critics, producers and associations involved with cinema making in the country.

It also provides details about the history of Cinema in Tunisia, and how it has evolved over the years; Also listing the different cinematic festivals and gatherings taking place throughout the country.

Cinema fans can also find the latest news, interviews, upcoming movie openings, as well as what movies are currently being shown in cinemas around Tunisia. They also have the possibility to connect with each other in the discussion forum, and to rate and review their favorite movies.

The portal is in French only for the time being. Hopefully it will keep growing into a very interesting resource documenting all sides and aspects of Tunisian Cinema.

# Cinéma Tunisien