Articles – Page 2 – StartUpArabia

Revisiting Arabic Social Bookmarking And Content Discovery

June 23, 2010June 23, 2010 MMM 2 Comments

A bit over two years ago, I wrote a post about the Arab social bookmarking services out there, listing the existing options, how good they looked and how well they seemed to be doing, identifying the top ones at that time.

If anyone were to pull up that same list today and go check on each one of the sites, they’d find that some have shut down, others have become useless and spam ridden, some others have become pretty much inactive, and only one or two are still holding on. What’s clear though is that these social bookmarking services never caught on with Arab web users, and never achieved their founders’ initial dreams for them.

However there are some new kids on the block, who are here to take another stab at social bookmarking and facilitating content discovery for users in the Arab world.

Arabize, slap an Arabic funky name on it n’ you got yourself a new startup

June 15, 2010June 15, 2010 dotone 9 Comments

So if you skipped the class where your math teacher introduced Equivalence, you haven’t missed much. You can easily learn it while checking up some of the Arabia’s start-ups with some of the online services that you usually use. Mind you some will confuse you with Equality.

While this could be a degrading statement, there are very functional and online industry evolutionary reasons behind that. Simply it’s not our copycat genes that make us race for developing an Arabic version of the next big thing. Facebook? hah, we can make one in Arabic. Twitter? now that’s easy to make, let’s do that.

What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?

December 8, 2008December 8, 2008 MMM

About a year ago, I came across a really interesting study by Saras D. Sarasvathy from University of Washington’s School of Business on “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?“. Today, I remebered it, thought I’d dig it up and share it here.

In her study, Sarasvathy examined the reasoning of 30 founders of companies, ranging in size from $200 Million to $6.5 Billion. What she found was that these founders shared a distinct form of rationality that we have all long recognized intuitively as “Entrepreneurial”. She termed this type of rationality “Effectual Reasoning”.

Here is a bit from her study that basically explains this “Effectual Reasoning”:

“Effectual reasoning […] does not begin with a specific goal. Instead, it begins with a given set of means and allows goals to emerge contingently over time from the varied imagination and diverse aspirations of the founders and the people they interact with. While causal thinkers are like great generals seeking to conquer fertile lands (Genghis Khan conquering two thirds of the known world), effectual thinkers are like explorers setting out on voyages into uncharted waters (Columbus discovering the new world).”

And on the process entrepreneurs follow:

“All entrepreneurs begin with three categories of means: (1) Who they are – their traits, tastes and abilities; (2) What they know – their education, training, expertise, and experience; and, (3) Whom they know – their social and professional networks. Using these means, the entrepreneurs begin to imagine and implement possible effects that can be created with them.”

It’s a very interesting study that I really recommend reading:
What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial? (Saras D. Sarasvathy)

The First, The Best, The Only…

June 11, 2008June 11, 2008 MMM 12 Comments

There is a certain mindset that a number of businesses still have and marketing people seem to continue to base their efforts on, even though I think it’s quite a wrong and misleading approach; it’s the idea of claiming that they are the first, the best, the only or whatever other superlative they can come up with.

If you think of it, do these words really mean anything at all?

What does it mean if a company is the first to offer a certain product or service, if the second or third are doing it much better? It’s clear being first doesn’t necessarily mean having the best solution; It does show experience in some cases, but having experience without using it to roll out a quality product adds up to nothing really.

The best? Who said so? It’s definitely not for businesses to claim anyway. Being the best is really relative, and it’s up to the client to decide which solution fits their specific personal needs the best.
Many varying factors come into play that define what any given client views as the perfect solution for their needs, and obviously there isn’t one answer to everyone’s requirements.

And finally is there really anyone doing anything online that they’re the only ones doing? Unless it’s a totally useless or crazy idea, chances are a number of other people have already thought about it too, and have either launched a similar project or will be launching it soon enough. And even if the business does manage to be the first at something, it’s basically only a matter of time before someone rolls out something similar, if not better.

So obviously these superlatives mean nothing at all, and all they do is take the focus off what really matters: building a great product.

What I’d love to hear more businesses honestly saying is: “We’ve listened to your needs, we’ve done our very best to meet them, and here’s how…”

Challenges To Web 2.0 In The Arab World

June 9, 2008June 9, 2008 Guest 20 Comments

This guest blog is by Mohamed Nanabhay , Head of New Media at the AlJazeera Network based in Doha, Qatar.

Launching an internet company in the the region can be a challenging endevour. While there is lots of startup activity going on, it is worthwhile looking at what those challenges are when starting up or assessing the success rate of the newest kid on the block. The three big challenges facing entrepreneurs in the region are:

Low internet penetration
Across the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA), you’re looking at approximately 25 million internet users (of which less than 6 million have broadband). But that doesn’t give you an accurate figure for the size of the market – to get that number we need to remove Iran and Israel which leaves us with an astonishing figure of under 10 million internet users and about 3 million broadband users.Whichever way you look at it, 10 million is not a big number. To put it into perspective, France alone has nearly 16 million internet users (with 12 million broadband users) but entrepreneurs are finding it difficult to start-up just for the French market. Loic Le Meur tells the story of Richard Branson telling him that his problem was that he was French which limited his market. Loic has moved to decided that it was too small a market to start Seesmic in so he moved to San Francisco.

This of course does not mean it is impossible to build a company or site for the Arabic interweb, it just means that there is a problem of scale.
Online advertising market immature
So even if you managed to capture a sizable chunk of the online audience, you’re faced with a problem of revenue generation. Forget trying to build a business based on a subscription model (which is so 1.0 anyway) since credit card penetration is probably lower than internet penetration. So what you’re left with is seeking out online advertising or sponsorship.I have yet to see a serious player in this market (if you know of one please let me know ASAP) which sadly means that there is no serious underlying business model. This is changing slowly – Google has setup shop in the region and has been promoting Adwords to the marketing folk but I suspect it will take some time before we see impressive CPMs.
The environment is not conducive for startups
But even if there was an advertising model that worked, we’re still left with the fact that there isn’t a strong internet startup culture and most online plays lack any serious innovation. Even the sweet services from the TootCorp gang are more or less localised versions of Silicon Valley startups (Ikbis = Youtube & Watwet =Twitter).Of course, this problem isn’t limited to the region but it should be something people are concerned about. I’ve seen people being put down in so many ways when trying to launch something new and novel. I have two university students interning for me – they are super-smart, motivated and hardworking. There is no reason that they couldn’t build a rockin’ internet company. Unfortunately I’ve seen many people (from lecturers to people who should get it) continually being totally hostile to the web projects they work on. Definitely not the way to foster innovation….

And lest we forget the bureaucracy…

Why I Don’t Trust Arab Online Services

June 2, 2008June 2, 2008 Guest 24 Comments

This guest blog is by Qwaider of Memories Documented.

I just can’t get my self to trust the Arab online services for many reasons. They’re emerging, they’re growing, but this one area that I fear that I’m never going to venture to.

And here is why…

Privacy
Privacy is the next big buzzword that you’re going to be hearing about from now on. It will by synonymous with security and is a great concern for great deal of researchers and experts mainly because the world as we see it today. Is going to continue to morph to depend more on alternate methods of identity. With Privacy as it’s cornerstone. Someone who has your information has the ability to steal your identity. Which will be catastrophic in the future. But that’s not all.

Lets face it, for Hotmail, I’m just a figure, no one is going to be interested in what I have in my inbox. But I sadly can’t say the same about Arabic services… That’s just the way it is. All you have to do is cross the wrong people. Who may not even be the decision makers or the admins themselves but they know a friend of a friend of their girlfriend, and now …. they know everything about you.

When I establish an account at Google, Facebook or even my space. I know that my private information is going to continue to be my private information. Someone accessing it illegitimately might be subject to very harsh disciplinary actions, and might do jail time.

I can’t feel the same about my information on ANY Arabic social or online server. So I stay away.

Quality
The Quality of a service that is pumping millions into their online presence is something you can feel. Even though the services grow and prosper. Their quality usually gets better as economies of scale starts kicking in. Sadly, this is not the case for Arabic online services and the results are disappointing.

Accountability
When something goes wrong. I know where to go to normally when dealing with an international company. I deal with a company and not an individual. So I know that even if someone is not there, things will still function. But sadly that’s not the case with Arab online services where accountability is really not that clear, and knowing people is the only way to get things done.

The Importance Of Having An API For Arab Startups

May 30, 2008May 30, 2008 MMM 15 Comments

Over the past few years, one of the really important trends and directions we’ve been seeing with online services is the move towards opening their platforms, mainly through APIs (Application programming interfaces), so that people can build a set of tools around them, pull or push information through them easily, and so as to make it easier for other platforms to talk to their platform as well.

When it comes to the tools developed around these platforms, we find tools that use the base functionalities provided by the platform, just making them easier to use by providing different interfaces and clients for the application; and other tools that extend the application further by providing complimentary functionalities that make it even more interesting for more users.

In both of these cases, having people developing these kinds of tools, and users adopting them, can only be good for the service, mainly because it helps build a community of users around the service, spreads it even further into the mainstream, and because it also provides clearer ideas for growth through the different uses the application is being used for.

On the other hand, having the possibility for other platforms to talk to their platform provides users of both platforms with an added-value, which can only be good, building user loyalty and growing both services’ user bases.

In the Arab online startup scene, we can’t really find that many examples of services opening up their platforms through APIs, even though I think it’s even more important and crucial in the Arab internet context.

Arab startups don’t have as much access to funding as their US or international counterparts, meaning that they have less flexibility and ability to grow their service into a central point that can be everything for everyone, so it’d be more interesting if they could just concentrate on one area, that they could fully develop and do very well, and then open it up so that other specialized services can plug in and communicate with it, in a way that we end up with a group of online applications that compliment each other and work together successfully.

Just taking the example of Yamli that recently opened up their linguistic service through an API, we can see that the online services that have integrated the functionality in their systems have easily provided an added-value for their users without having to invest a lot of time into developing a solution of their own, leaving them the time to concentrate on their main business, while Yamli see a growth in their user base and can continue to develop their solution even more.

In the end it’s a win-win situation for both the providing service and the consuming one.

Analysis: Dwwen Blog Aggregator Almost Shut Down

May 29, 2008May 29, 2008 MMM 15 Comments

A few days ago, Arab blog aggregator service Dwwen announced they would be shutting down on June 15th this year due to financial and resource burdens.

The announcement came on the blog of Tareq Abu Zeid, the founder of Dwwen, where he said that the lack of financial backing for the service doomed it and made shutting it down inevitable.

After the announcement, a number of comments flowed in, with some people proposing that Dwwen start a donations campaign to raise money to keep going on, while some others offered to help in any way possible, and others asked how much they needed, showing readiness to help financially.

Yesterday, only a couple of days after the initial announcement, a little announcement was put up on the Dwwen homepage telling users that the service wouldn’t be shutting down and that further details would be communicated later.

It’s great news that Dwwen managed to find the backing or means to keep going on, they’ve built a really good service since they launched, and have managed to gain many an Arab blogger’s respect.

But now that things have worked out for the best, I think we should take a step back to study and analyse their case a little bit, because I think it more or less gives us some insight into the rather short life cycles of Arab startups of this kind, and how they end up having to take the decision to shut down.

Business Plan Or No Business Plan?

May 12, 2008May 12, 2008 MMM 16 Comments

As I scour the internet going through bunches of articles and blog posts, and as I read more and more business books looking for more advice and tips on launching startups and running them, one of the main questions that keeps coming to mind is that concerning the business plan.

On one side you have the people who tell you to forget about writing a business plan, and to invest that time into working on your startup, getting things off the ground and moving, and that your business plan will come easily to you later on when you’re well established.

On the other side, of course, are the people who think a business is not a business unless you seriously think about and formulate a business plan for it, and that it’s best done at the very beginning so that you know what your goals are, where you’re taking your startup and how you’re actually going to make money to keep it alive.

Both opinions hold a certain amount of truth and logic in them, but if you’re an entrepreneur thinking of launching a business today, which bit of advice should you follow?
Is there a middle ground between the two?

Personally, I think it’s very important that the entrepreneur have an idea about how they plan to generate revenue to sustain their business and grow it from the beginning, but still move forward with an open mind about it all, fully knowing that their idea could change with the evolution of the project.

How detailed these initial ideas or plans have to be depend on the size of the project and the investment being put into it; sometimes they can be just a tiny thought scribbled on a post-it note, and some other times it’s a big elaborate document.

The importance of having this idea of how the business ‘can’ eventually make money is for it to serve as a guide, a reference point for the entrepreneur to keep in mind as they build up their business, and develop different paths towards that goal, and explore other new ones that open up for them along the way.

What are your thoughts on the issue? Business plan or no business plan?