Category: Jordan

ShooFeeTV Free Arab TV Guide Service Officially Launched

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ShooFeeTVShooFeeTV, a free online Arabic television guide, has officially been launched as a useful resource for TV fans, allowing them access to the program grids for the 120 most popular channels, carried by NileSat and ArabSat.

ShooFeeTV has been under development for some time now, recently going public with a beta while they ironed out the final details before this release. But they’ve already been syndicating content to Maktoob’s TV Guide section well before the launch.

The site holds a wealth of information revolving around Arab TV channels, their programming, details about the different shows, movies and actors (both Arab and foreign); and this information is provided in a number of different ways, to make it as easy as possible for the user to find what they’re looking for quickly.
Short news features about popular programs and actors are provided by the ShooFeeTV team too. 

Photos and videos from the world of television are also made available that users can view and share with their friends. ShooFeeTV users can add comments, vote in weekly entertainment polls and participate in discussion forums and television-related blogs available on the site.

From the beginning, the site recognizes which country a user is located in, and automatically sets the programming grid to their local time, eliminating any painful time conversions.
To further personalize their use of the website, users can log on on and create their own listings grid featuring their favorite channels, using the ‘My ShooFeeTV’ feature.

ShooFeeTV screenshot

The website features selected programs highlighted by the site’s independent editorial team, as well as the most popular programs, as ranked by users of the service.

ShooFeeTV also provides a podcast, which in three minutes each time takes viewers one week ahead, highlighting upcoming movies, sports events and television shows. The podcast will also be available on iTunes.

ShooFeeTV doesn’t stop at the online side of things; taking things a step further to distribute their content through a number of other channels. For example, they plan to distribute a special version of the podcast to radio stations who wish to provide TV programming to their listeners; mobile services giving users access to TV listings on their mobile phones should be coming soon; deals are being pursued to syndicate their content to other portals, newspapers and magazines; and a satellite TV channel featuring Arab TV listings is part of the plan.

ShooFeeTV was launched from Jordan; it was founded by entrepreneur Amjad Tadros. 
Accelerator Technology Holdings (ATH), through their IV Holdings arm, announced their investment in the startup earlier this year.

# ShooFeeTV

Ikbis Launch New Advanced Video Player

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IkbisIkbis, the popular Arab video and photo sharing website, has launched a new advanced video player with improved features, interface and performance.

The new video player looks a lot cooler than the old one, and feels more organized, using space in a better way, with a new on hover dock system instead of the old fixed bar at the bottom.

A new HD feature has been added to the player to enable watching videos in high definition, and it is now possible to skip forward by dragging the player head on the timeline.

And following the re-design the Ikbis homepage underwent recently, another key page, which is the single video/photo page was also redesigned now to be more compact/streamlined, giving users easier access to related content, commenting, embedding and social bookmarking services.

ikbis new single page

According to Ahmad Humeid, CEO of TootCorp, Ikbis’ parent company, the design also takes into consideration the increasing demand from advertisers that ikbis has been experiencing, especially in the Gulf region.

Online Advertising in the Arab World: Impacts and Opportunities – August 21st – Amman, Jordan

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PosterThe Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Google have announced a new seminar titled “Online Advertising in the Arab World: Impacts and Opportunities“, with Google Country Business Development Manager (UAE) Husni Khuffash.

The event will be taking place on August 21st (5:30 PM) at the Friendship auditorium in The Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Al Jubeiha, Amman (Jordan).

As the title implies, the seminar will be tackling the topics of online advertising in the Arab world, the existing opportunities, and the impacts of pursuing advertising online.

If you’re interested in attending the seminar, you can register by sending an email to: google@qrce.org

Javna Launches MobiAd Mobile Advertising Platform

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mobiadJavna, a leading Arab company in the field of mobile software solutions and wireless applications has launched MobiAd, the first mobile ad application that allows users to earn money.

The Amman-based company said the program needs only to be downloaded on users’ cell phones free of charge, to start immediately accumulating points and collecting money. In addition, subscribers will also be eligible for periodic drawings on prizes offered by advertisors .

Underlining the feasibility of MobiAd as an ad platform, Javna said companies can now resort to this state-of-the-art application to get their messages across to the targeted segments of consumers who, for the first time ever, will have the chance to earn money rather than just spend it.

Javna hopes MobiAd will meet the growing needs of companies for innovative and out-of-the-box marketing techniques that ensure the achievement of the ad campaign goals while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

MobiAd allows advertising companies and ad agencies to reach out to the targeted segment of consumers in a modern and more interactive fashion, by defining the targeted age range, gender, and geographical location, among other data necessary to render the ad campaign a success and ensure its objectives are met in an optimal manner. In addition, the program provides technical reports to evaluate the campaign throughout its various phases.

All telecom companies’ subscribers, regardless of the type of their subscription, can download the software by visiting its official website: www.mobiadhome.com. Subscribers will have the choice to voluntarily join the marketing programs according to their interest and be rewarded for their choice; they will be also be able to invite their friends to Join the program and share the benefits with others.

Javna expect the mobile advertising platform to have a significant share of the Arab ad market, estimated at $7bn annually, especially since the new technology is based on interactive solutions through multiple delivery channels starting from SMS and MMS messaging, to flash interfaces that appear when a call is received or made by the user. These marketing tools can be programmed to appear regularly on set dates and times.

Info2cell Partners With Future TV To Provide Content To Mobile Phone Users In Saudi Arabia

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Info2cellInfo2cell.com, the leading mobile application service provider in the Middle East, has recently announced the signing of a content license and distribution agreement with Lebanon-based Future TV to provide video and MMS clips of hugely popular TV programmes, ‘Rossoom Mutaharirah’, ‘La Yomal’ and ‘Abou Riad’, to mobile phone users in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Through the subscription-based service, which will be launched today, users will receive the content three times per week. Each video clip – video IVR, WAP portal, video push and video streaming – will be up to two minutes long, while the MMS content will be 30 seconds in duration.

Bashar Dahabra, Founder and CEO of Info2cell.com, said,: ‘ We are pleased to sign this important agreement with Future TV which will enable us to provide select clippings from three highly popular TV programmes on the mobile phones of subscribers. Info2cell.com is committed to offering the most innovative and exciting content to its subscribers, in line with current market trends and consumer interests, and this partnership with Future TV perfectly complements our strategy.’

Samir S. Hammoud, Chairman and General Manager of Future TV, said, ‘The viewership for our programmes has been growing steadily in recent years and we are glad that this alliance with Info2cell.com has created another vital channel for subscribers in KSA to view clippings of some of our most watched programmes.’

Last year, Info2cell.com teamed up with MBC channel in Saudi Arabia to offer subscribers, video clips, ring tones, wallpapers and Java games of hugely popular television programmes including ‘Tash Ma Tash’, ‘Beiny o Bainak’, ‘Meznah’ and ‘Stories of the Prophet’.

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

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Souq.com StoresSouq.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.

Souq.com Stores screenshot

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

D1G Acquires Popular Jordanian Forum E7ki

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D1GD1G 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.

New And Improved Version Of Araby Directory

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ArabyTowards the end of 2007, Arabic search engine “Araby” bought popular Arab website directory “Eyoon” in order to integrate it as a service of Araby; Araby Directory was officially launched in early 2008.

The goal behind Araby Directory is to add the number of useful services for Araby users, as well as grow the user base, through providing for users’ every need.

Ever since the intial launch, the Araby team have been working on a set of improvements for the Araby Directory service, to enhance usability and provide better and more organized content.

Some of the main enhancements released with this new version are the following:

  • A new design for the directory and an easier way to navigate through it.
  • A number of new main categories and subcategories to better cover and organize as many websites as possible.
  • Addition of a large numbers of websites, organized under their relative categories and subcategories.
  • Integration of the advanced Araby search functionalities to make searching for and finding websites a lot easier and efficient.
  • The possibility to suggest new websites by users.
  • The possibility to report broken links or inappropriate content by users.
  • Display of more information about the websites in the directory.
  • Integration of the “Email to a friend” functionality.

Araby Directory screenshot

Araby is one of the services and companies of Maktoob Group.

# Araby Directory

The Art of Online Advertising, Adwords and Analytics Seminar – July 28th – Amman, Jordan

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Google Ad SeminarThe Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Google have announced a seminar titled “The Art of Online Advertising, Adwords and Analytics“, by Google AdWords Account Manager Elias Darwish, that will be taking place on July 28th (5 PM) at the Loay Shammout auditorium in The Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Al Jubeiha, Amman (Jordan).

The seminar will be tackling the general topics of online advertising and analytics, and their different best practices, with a focus on what Google’s own solutions like Google AdWords and Google Analytics can do for advertisers.

Google will also be handing out free handbooks about Ad optimization to attendees.

Attendance of the seminar is free of charge; To register you can email: google@qrce.org

TechCONNECT 2 Networking Event – July 28th – Amman, Jordan

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TechConnect 2The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship has announced the second TechCONNECT networking event will be taking place on July 28th (7-8:30 PM) at the Green Garden in The Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Al Jubeiha, Amman (Jordan).

TechCONNECT is a networking event designed to bring together entrepreneurs, leaders in the technology industry, and those with a demonstrable interest in technology based entrepreneurship in an informal setting; aiming to promote dialogue, interchange and the exchange of ideas to further enable and create a culture of technology-based entrepreneurship in Jordan.

The organizers hope the event will help surface the next generation of business experts, technology startups and venture capitalists, who will be driving the entire technology industry in Jordan and the Arab region.

For those interested in reading about the first TechCONNECT event, you can check these reviews: