September 2008 – StartUpArabia

UAE Second Most Socially Networked Country In The World

September 30, 2008September 30, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

A recent worldwide survey by market intelligence firm, Synovate, revealed that 58% of people don’t know what social networking is, plus over one third of social networkers are losing interest.

Over 13,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 in seventeen markets around the world took part in the survey.

Across these 17 markets surveyed, 42% of people know what online social networking is, which leaves 58% in the dark… either saying ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’.

Overall, 26% across the markets surveyed are members of social networking sites. This peaked with the Netherlands at 49%, United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 46%, Canada at 44% and the US at 40%.

Synovate’s Managing Director for the UAE, George Christodoulides, says: “The popularity in the UAE makes sense. It is a place that’s very connected to the world; a hub for cultures, business and people.”

“These sites also offer a way for people to meet — online — in a society where traditionally men and women don’t always mix freely.”

The survey also asked social networkers to name the sites they belong to. Some markets seemed to favour multiple memberships and some seemed to stick to one or two major ones. The markets where social networking aficionados favour signed up for many sites are UAE, India, Indonesia, and Bulgaria.

Thirty seven percent of all people from the UAE, 35% of South Africans and 29% of Taiwanese agreed that they had more friends online than they have in the ‘real’ world.

On a global level, users did have some reservations about social networking, with 51% saying they were aware of the dangers of social networking such as identity theft, and 36% of respondents saying they were losing interest in social networking.

# Synovate Social Networking Survey Results

The New Media Event, 14-18 December, JW Marriott, Dubai

September 29, 2008September 29, 2008 MMM 3 Comments

The New Media Event is a new event, being organised for the first time in the Middle East, that is dedicated to the growing power of new media and will identify the most important new media tools used by major corporations and organisations around the globe.

The event will be taking place from 14 – 18 December 2008 at JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai, UAE.

It will discuss challenges, issues and trends in an attempt to help organisations find the right new media tools for their needs.

A number of new media minds and regional experts will be present at the event to discuss how new media can help build brands and increase brand awarness; and it will be an opportunity for PR and marketing professionals who want to identify what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to new media in the region.

Speakers at the event include Hollywood directors, key bloggers, entrepreneurs and new media representatives from the world and the region’s most admired companies; all to help explore the power of social media in today’s highly competitive market, and set the new media agenda for 2009 in the region.

The New Media Event, aside from 20+ powerful presentations, will also feature some innovative workshops to help organisations implement new media strategies.

For more details on the event, speakers, presentations and workshops; check the official website: The New Media Event

ShooFeeTV To Broadcast From Jordan Media City

September 28, 2008September 28, 2008 MMM 5 Comments

ShooFeeTV has signed an agreement with the Jordan Media City (JMC) to transmit its free-to-air satellite channel from the JMC site in Amman.

ShooFeeTV’s state-of-the-art data center will link to JMC by a fiber-optic connection that will carry the signal from ShooFeeTV to the satellite platform ArabSat via JMC’s facilities.

After extensive market research, ShooFeeTV decided to go with JMC not only because of their experience and extremely efficient operations. “It’s a tightly run ship,” says Amjad Tadros, founder and CEO of ShooFeeTV.

The ShooFeeTV agreement with the JMC represents a company philosphy of quality and excellence. On-screen graphics and broadcast equipment come from The Harris Corporation, and provide flexibility and reliability for businesses that can’t afford to go offline. The Harris broadcast equipment can be easily integrated with ShooFeeTV’s online and mobile phone products.

ShooFeeTV, the premier content provider of Arab satellite channel information on television, the web and third-party services, will air an around-the-clock scrolling guide of programs from more than 150 of the most popular satellite channels on the ArabSat and NileSat platforms. With original quality programs to supplement the channel such as ShooFee Aflam, ShooFee 7elo and ShooFee Riyada, the channel will serve as the only information portal continually updating viewers on the best films, series, sports and more.

The business has been built on a conceptually designed model that allows for a seamless transfer of content from ShooFeeTV’s data center to the final-content viewer.

In addition to the channel and a highly developed website, viewers will be able to access ShooFeeTV’s content through a variety of media, including mobile phones, podcasts and syndication services.

Bahrain’s Mobile Penetration Rate Rises To 138%

September 26, 2008September 26, 2008 MMM

Flag of Bahrain Bahrain’s mobile penetration rate has the potential to reach 164 per cent by 2012, a penetration rate, which is already being reached in some European countries and in other parts of the Middle East.

By the end of 2007, the number of mobile subscribers in Bahrain had increased to 1.116 million, translating to a penetration rate of nearly 138 per cent.

Bahrain’s mobile market continues to produce remarkable rates of growth, in spite of the regulator’s recent insistence that operators count only active subscribers within their reported customer totals.

This was revealed by market research firm Companies and Markets in its recently released Bahrain Telecommunications Report Q3 2008.

Growth in the final quarter of the year was stronger than in all three previous quarters combined. The number of mobile customers saw a 15.7 per cent surge in Q4 of 2007, with growth being mainly driven by Zain’s expanding prepaid customer base. Zain’s prepaid customer base grew by 47.4 per cent in Q4 ’07, compared with a mere 3.1 per cent increase in the number of Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) prepaid customers.

Despite the already highly saturated nature of Bahrain’s mobile market, announced in April 2008, it was reported that the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) had invited telecoms industry players and interested parties to express interest and opinions on the planned award of a third mobile network operating licence.The regulator has asked potential applicants to give opinions regarding preferred spectrum bands and size of frequency blocks to be assigned, plus related issues including infrastructure sharing, national roaming and length of shared exclusivity period.

In separate news, reported in February 2008, it was revealed that Bahrain’s government planned to sell the majority of its shares in fixed-line incumbent Batelco over the next three years, as part of the country’s Second National Telecommunication Plan approved by the Parliament earlier in the same month.

The planned sale is aimed at enabling the full-service telecom company to operate with full independence from the government and make commercial decisions free of political influence.

# Bahrain Telecommunications Report Q3 2008

Untiny, A Tool To Expand Shortened URLs

September 25, 2008September 25, 2008 MMM 9 Comments

A bunch of URL shortening services have been popping up everywhere recently, made popular by the advent of micro-blogging, each offering users the base functionality to take long urls and shorten them, with some adding some small yet interesting functionalities on the side.

Untiny is a new service that does the exact opposite, giving you the possibility to take a shortened URL and expand it to retrieve the original web address behind it.

There are a number of reasons why this comes in handy, as it solves the problem of obfuscation created by shortened URLs where the person provided the link doesn’t have any way to tell where it really points, and in some countries it solves the problem of any of those URL shortening services being blocked.

The user interface is as simple as you can imagine such a service should be, you’re presented with a simple textbox where you can paste the shortened URL, click on the retrieve button, and get the original URL.

A quicker shortcut is also provided by directly passing the shortened URL to their service in the address bar using the following syntax: http://untiny.com?url=SHORTENED URL
Untiny also provides the possibility to add the tool in the search engine textbox in Firefox to enable users to directly paste the shortened URL in and get on their way.

An API has also been created for the service to enable developers and other services to tap into the Untiny service to expand shortened URLs.

Among the developments currently underway for Untiny are a Firefox add-on, Greasemonkey script, Mac widget and Windows widget.

Untiny was launched in public beta on September 12th from Saudi Arabia by Saleh Al-Zaid.

# Untiny

Jordan’s Internet Penetration Rate Grows To 21%

September 24, 2008September 24, 2008 MMM 6 Comments

Flag of Jordan According to official numbers released by the Jordanian Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the number of internet users in the kingdom reached 1.2 millions users at the end of the first half of 2008, which represents a penetration rate of more than 20.5% of the Jordanian population which currently stands at around 6 million.

The numbers show a growth of more than 1.5% happening in the second quarter of this year in comparison to the first quarter, as the rate back at the end of the first quarter was just under 19%. The penetration stood at 17% at the end of 2007.

According to the reported numbers, 16% of Jordanian households have internet access; with differences in the percentage between urban and rural areas, which is explained by the still relatively high cost of computers and internet services.

The national strategy for the telecommunications sector aims to reach an internet penetration rate of 50% by end of 2011. The government has actually lowered the sales tax on internet related services from 16% to 8% to help spread internet services and grow the internet user base in the kingdom.

# Source: Arabian Business

Tools4Com OIS, A Simple Online Invoicing System

September 23, 2008September 23, 2008 MMM 3 Comments

By now it’s basically no secret to anyone that the future of software is through the browser and ever more specialized web applications, and this is confirmed by the different new web applications that are popping up everywhere to fulfill individuals’ and companies’ needs, competing in spaces that were previously reserved for desktop applications.

Tunis based Tools4Com‘s new online invoicing system Tools4Com OIS is yet another example of such web applications; reproducing all the essential features of an invoicing desktop application, and creating a viable alternative for smaller companies and independent workers who prefer the use of online applications, that give them the flexibility of accessing their data and functionalities from anywhere.

Tools4Com OIS enables users to manage their invoices, quotations, pro forma invoices, delivery notes, clients and products online, along with other related functionalities like exporting all the different documents in HTML or PDF, viewing detailed reports, auto calculation of the sales tax, setting up reminders at chosen frequencies, and more.

Users can also enable online payment of their invoices through the system using PayPal or AlertPay, witth more client payment options on the way.

Tools4Com OIS provides a number of plans, ranging from the free basic version which covers most of the main functionalities limiting the number of documents that can be created, to the paid plans that range from 20 to 150 Euros per month depending on how many documents the user needs to create and manage.

Tools4Com OIS is available in French only for the time being; a German version is currently under way, and an English version should follow closely. An Arabic version is also planned for the future.

Tools4Com was launched from Tunisia by Mohamed Aymen Ben Abdallah, opened for public use in August 2008, and has been rolling out new features and enhancements frequently ever since.
With the launch behind their back, the founder seems to have some pretty big plans for his new startup that he’s already setting in motion, and in a little talk we had recently, he told me that he’s considering pursuing investment possibilities to accelerate the implementation of his plans.

# Tools4Com

Hyde Park, Group Blog With Social Networking Features

September 21, 2008September 21, 2008 MMM 1 Comment

Hyde Park is a new interesting Arabic project, currently under development, and which has been wrapped in a veil of secrecy up to now. We at StartUpArabia have been able to get our hands on some information about the project that we’d like to share with you.

Hyde Park is a group blog with integrated social networking features, enabling bloggers to publish freely and as easily as possible.

The main goals behind Hyde Park are to simplify the process of blogging as much as possible and to create more and more connections and interaction between bloggers by bringing them together on one collective blog where they can write about a range of common topics.

With Hyde Park there won’t be any complicated or obligatory steps to blog; a blogger can just enter his name and a password to create an account and start blogging right away, using a simple and clear visual interface. Every blogger has a personal dashboard to publish their blog posts from, get in touch with other blogges, follow comments, …etc.

All blog posts can be voted on (both positively and negatively), with the possibility of showing the blog’s content in the same way used on social bookmarking services.
Content on the blog will be categorized using tags and channels, and can be displayed according to this categorization, date of publishing, or number of votes. Comments on posts can also be followed on an independent page.

As for the social networking side of things; every blogger will get their own personal page to share their personal details and list their blog psots; this page can be totally personalized and redesigned according to the blogger’s taste. Other users can comment on the blogger’s page, much like they can do on a person’s wall on Facebook and other social networks. Bloggers can also build up their list of friends on the site.

A public beta version of the service will be released on October 1st, as a number of standard features continue to be added and completed, before the official launch of the site.
The service will be available in Arabic only at the beginning, with the possibility of more languages in the future.

Hyde Park is a project that was launched by well known blogger Mohammed Said Hjiouij from Morocco.

# Hyde Park

More Innovative Partnerships On The Way For Etisalat’s Internet TV Solution

September 19, 2008September 19, 2008 MMM 1 Comment

Etisalat revealed to ITP.net that more innovative partnerships are in the pipeline for their recently launched internet television solution, which gives broadcasters and content owners the ability to upload content onto Etisalat’s network.

Etisalat’s IPTV solution was officially launched on September 10th through a partnership with MBC to enable online viewing of the top nine programmes being aired by MBC during the month of Ramadan.

“This service is relatively new to the region. Our alliance with MBC is also a test of the popularity this service might gain in the future,” said Khalifa Al Shamsi, vice president of marketing, consumer & SMB at Etisalat.

“Already, we have a lot of such exciting and innovative partnerships in the pipeline, which we will disclose in the coming months,” he added.

Etisalat believes that the reach of this technology is not just limited to the UAE, as it presents an opportunity to cater to a global audience. However, content providers can easily add restrictions on exactly who can access the content.

“While the platform has the ability to geographically block users that come from certain parts of the world, imposing any such restrictions is left to the discretion of producers and owners of the content since they are the ones who control what content should be shown and who should be able to access it,” said Al Shamsi.

# Source: ITP.net