Category: Portals

Hotels.com Launches Arabic Website For The Middle East

MMM 9 Comments

Hotels.comHotels.com, one of the leading hotel accommodation booking sites in the world, has announced the launch of its Arabic website in the Middle East.  The website is available at http://fanadeq.hotels.com and uses IP based country recognition, an Arabic-language interface and local currency pricing and payment methods.

Hotels.com, is part of the Expedia group, and currently operates 52 global sites. Expedia announced in the summer of last year that it would be launching a dedicated travel portal for the Middle East within the following 12 months, and it seems this is the result of that effort.

Covering the key markets in the Middle East, the new website aims to offer competitive, value for money rates at over 100,000 hotels worldwide. As well as the hotel booking function, the site also offers in-depth hotel information including Microsoft mapping capabilities and property facility information. The site also includes destination information and customers reviews all in Arabic.

Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director of Hotels.com commented, “By launching our new website in Arabic, we are committed to unlocking the full potential of the Middle East market. Our goal is to offer our customers an accommodation booking service with extensive choices, great value prices and excellent customer service.”

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) barometer, the Middle East is already the world’s largest driver of travel, tourism and hospitality, with the sector fuelling the region’s current annual tourism growth of 11% per annum.

The Middle East has seen a steady growth in e-commerce over the last few years with an increasing number of consumers using the internet to buy products and services. One of the fastest growing categories for e-commerce across the globe is travel as customers are increasingly choosing the internet to look for the best deals.

Ekree, A Tunisian Portal To Rent Anything Online

MMM 5 Comments

ekreeEkree, which means rent in Tunisian Arabic, is a new Tunisian portal that allows people to post any of their items or belongings online for rent, and gives people who are interested the possibility to rent them.

By providing a platform for renting things online, Ekree aims to fill a gap in the market of classifieds and e-commerce sites, targeting people who can’t afford to buy a certain item, or who only need a certain thing temporarily; and also offering a way for people to make some money out of certain belongings of theirs.

The site is open for both individuals as well as businesses who want to use the site as a platform to provide their products for rent online in hopes of expanding their reach and making their products easier to find.

The interface is pretty straightforward and very similar in principle to any e-commerce site out there, with the only difference being that you rent instead of buy. Available items can be found organized under categories and subcategories or through the search engine, which allows users to filter by keyword, category, subcategories, location, price and more.

After finding an item of interest, the user will find rental conditions with it, and will be able to directly make a reservation to rent the item online from the site.

ekree

In order to build customer confidence, Ekree provides a full circle rating system enabling the rating of items/products, renters, and owners. Standardized rent contracts are also generated through the system to organize rentals happening through the system.

The portal is in French and available for Tunisia only for the time being, but should expand to other countries in the future.

Ekree was founded by Habib Redissi and Tarek Nachnouchi, who are behind a young company called World Easy Web that mainly targeted the European market, but is making its first step into the Tunisian market with Ekree.

# Ekree

Tunisian Business Portal Web Manager Center Launches Arabic Version

MMM 7 Comments

WMCWeb Manager Center, the leading online portal for economic and business news in Tunisia just announced the launch of their Arabic version today.

Over the past years, the French version of the site has become a well known resource for business people and reporters alike.

This move comes to cater to readers from Tunisia who prefer reading their news in Arabic, as well as to reach out to readers from around the Arab world who are interested in economic and business news out of Tunisia.

Web Manager Center provides daily detailed news updates covering the latest developments and events in the areas of economy, business and technology.

The portal works on providing the latest news on the Tunisian economy and its various sectors from industry, to agriculture, to finance, services and healthcare. It also sheds light on the world of business in Tunisia, the deals taking place, investments and partnership opportunities. It also covers the information and communications technology sector in the country, detailing all the latest products and services in the market.

WMC

The site also provides a ticker of the latest stock prices on the Tunisian stock exchange, as well as exchange rates for the Arab currencies.

In short, just like the French version before it, the Arabic version of Web Manager Center aims to be a central resource on everything related to the Tunisian economy, business in the country, as well as technology, through the news and analysis it provides.

Ras2Ras Releases New Version Of Their Comparison Service

MMM

ras2rasRas2Ras, the comparison research service from Yemen; which is based on the simple of concept of putting any two comparable things against each other, and letting people vote on which they like best; has released a new version.

The new release comes with a slightly different new design and layout that still hangs on to the simplicity of the old one, but is just a bit more organized, more visually appealing and integrates their new features.

The service which is still in beta is looking more mature now, with the new design and a number of other previously hanging details ironed out.

Comparisons, or Battles as they’re called on the service, now end after 90 days. Then they can be found up in the site’s results section. Select battle results will also be highlighted by the Ras2Ras team on their blog and elsewhere on the web. 

Users can now also join discussions on battles, getting alerts whenever someone submits a reply on the discussion; making it easier for people to follow topics of interest to them.

Other little additions and tweaks have been added here and there, like the rotation of the latest comments on the homepage, the improved URL structure and the site becoming more search engine friendly.

# Ras2Ras

Musafir, New Online Travel Portal For The UAE

MMM 2 Comments

MusafirUniversal Tourism recently announced the launch of Musafir.com, a new travel website that will allow travelers from the UAE to search for flights to over 3,000 destinations around the world on all leading airlines and book them online in seconds.

Musafir means “traveler” in several regional languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu.

The venture was founded in August 2007 by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al Thani, Sachin Gadoya and Albert Dias, with the aim to make booking travel from the UAE just as easy as it has been in the rest of the world for a number of years now.

“We live by three promises to our travelers in everything we do”, said the founders, when asked about what makes Musafir.com different from other travel websites in the region, “great choice, no-nonsense convenience and a premium experience”. The company also offers a Travel Expert service for travelers who would like to customize their trips over the telephone and a Travel Smart guide with tips for travel enthusiasts.

Online travel bookings are expected to account for over 30 percent of the UAE’s outbound leisure travel market by 2012, with e-ticketing and the zero-commission model in particular being credited for the recent impetus.

Musafir screenshot

Musafir plans to offer a number of new services in 2009, including hotel reservations and sightseeing tours, to meet the growing demand. The company is investing AED 3 million in the development of a proprietary trip planning solution over the next two years to make planning holidays from the UAE easier.

# Musafir.com

Ishki, A New Portal For Arabs To Post Their Complaints Online

MMM 4 Comments

IshkiIshki (which means ‘complain’ in Arabic) is an interesting new portal that was recently released from Jordan, giving Arab users the chance to post their different complaints online and get their voices out to the world.

Other than just complaining, the portal lets users start petitions on several issues and collect signatures for them; They can also ask other site visitors for help on certain problems or situations they’re facing.

In addition to all that, the website also gives users the possibility to do the very opposite of complaining, by blowing someone’s horn and singing their praises.

A special imaginary character, humorously called “Dr. Shakib Tanash” (which translates into Dr. Shakib Careless), has his own section where people can share their problems and get his feedback and advice.

Ishki Screenshot

Each complainer gets their own page grouping all their submissions to the website, that they can either make private or keep public. Other visitors can vote on the submitted complaints, requests for help and praises; as well as sign whatever petitions they agree with.

The site is still new and not much content has been submitted yet by users, but the idea is a really good one, and it should be interesting to see how well it goes, what kind of reaction it’ll get from the people, and what role it’ll play in helping spread freedom of speech.

The portal was founded and put together by a talented team consisting of Wael Attili, Mohamed Al Razem, Ahmad Kharbat, and Wahid Barghouthi.

# Ishki 

Laazi, New Job Portal Simplified For Job Seekers

MMM 3 Comments

Laazi is a new job portal that was recently launched in its beta version to cater to the Middle Eastern job market, trying to simplify the process of finding a job for job seekers in the region.

They started by the UAE job market but will be expanding across the entire region soon.

Laazi’s design is very simplistic, and attempts to make things as easy as possible for jobseekers, by eliminating the usually long registration steps; making it very quick to sign up and start searching for jobs on the portal. 

To register with Laazi, a user only needs to upload their CV, and then all information is extracted from there to automatically fill in the registrations forms. All the user has to do then is check if all the information was filled correctly, make whatever modifications he needs and save his profile.

Laazi

Laazi enters a market with some already big and established players, but hopes that by cutting down the time to create an account and start searching for jobs, they’ll be able to lure users their way and get them to use their service.

The beta version of Laazi was launched in September 2008; it’s a product of Danat, the same company behind Logta, which was previously reviewed here.

# Laazi 

Businessbuyandsell.me, Middle East’s First Business & Franchise Marketplace

MMM 8 Comments

Businessbuyandsell.meDubai-based RichWeb, a member of Tharaa Holding, has just launched the beta version of BusinessBuyAndSell.me, the region’s first portal dedicated to buying and selling businesses and franchises, in a move that aims to cater to and boost company acquisitions and expansion activities by business establishments in the Middle East and North Africa (including Turkey and Iran).

BusinessBuyAndSell.me offers a number of services, such as listing businesses for buying and selling with the option to search by category and region; listing and finding global franchise opportunities available for the Middle East; receiving auto-updates on new listings based on saved search criteria; advertising opportunities; with a number of other value-added services that will be launched with the non-beta version within the next 6 Months.

The directory of listings on BusinessBuyAndSell.me is a free service for buyers, which will enable them to search opportunities by location, category and size of businesses. Potential buyers can also have their search criteria saved and regularly receive listing updates, based on their specific requirements. Owners who plan to sell their businesses or franchises can register online and list their offerings on the website and find potential buyers in a much faster, easier and convenient way, as opposed to traditional methods of newspaper advertising.

As an introductory offer, all listings are free of cost during the trial period and huge reductions in advertising rates are available.

Businessbuyandsell.me

Commenting on the portal’s launch, Mr. Shabeer Mohamed, RichWeb’s Managing Partner, said: “Buying and selling businesses and franchises is a key area of economic activity all over the world. However, until now, there has been no proper domain in the region for potential buyers and sellers to come in contact with each in a fast and easy manner, I am sure our service will come as a saviour to many establishments seeking to restructure their operations.”

Other related services that BusinessBuyAndSell.me plans to offer include providing details of available business loans, business-related services and other useful resources. 

# Source: Maktoob Business

ReKrute.com Expands Into Tunisian Employment Market

MMM 2 Comments

ReKrute.comReKrute.com, one of the leading online career portals in Morocco, that was launched from Casablanca in 2006, just expanded into the Tunisian market, recently opening an office in Tunis and launching a dedicated version of their portal.

Like other online job portals, ReKrute.com aims to continuously connect companies looking to recruit in Tunisia with the best candidates out there.

The portal is totally free for candidates searching for a job, hoping to become their main access point to the job market, providing them with fresh job offers, information on the Tunisian job market, career advice and tips, online language tests and more.
Of course, the possibility to just post their CVs to the portals database so that they can be found by employers is also possible. 

For companies, ReKrute.com provides a global and flexible e-recruitment solution, that enables them to search through a database of CVs that match their exact needs, post their job vacancies and get in touch with the right potential employees for them.

All Job offers through the portal will also be reachable through the MSN Maghreb‘s job section which is powered by ReKrute.com.

ReKrute.com

In order to promote ReKrute.com in Tunisia and increase its visibility, partnership agreements are being finalised with big media entities, as well as a number of important Tunisian and European universities.

Ramla Jamel, who previously was a channel manager at Intel Corp., is the general manager of ReKrute.com in Tunisia.

Mecca.com Releases More Features And New Design

MMM 11 Comments

Mecca.comMecca.com, the Muslim community portal, that also integrates a social networking and user generated content platform, has just rolled out a new look, unveiling a new logo and a re-design for their whole website.

The new design is more colorful and looks more hip; it also feels better organized, optimizing the use of screen real estate.

This new design, comes just a short while after Mecca.com rolling out their new Videos section, where members can upload and share their videos with friends. As with other online video sharing services, friends have the ability to comment, rate, edit, and share videos with other users.

Mecca.com

Mecca.com had also enhanced their Photo sharing feature by improving the user interface, and adding the possibility to import photos from Facebook and Flickr.