StartUpArabia – Page 47 – Everything About Arab Startups And Entrepreneurs

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

What audience should Arab startups target? [Poll]

July 31, 2008July 31, 2008 MMM 4 Comments

A new poll has gone live on StartUpArabia, you can find it on the first sidebar on the right or vote straight from this post.

This poll addresses the question of target audience for Arab startups, and it asks:
What audience should Arab startups target?

Should they go global? Should they concentrate on the region? Or maybe just on Arabs around the world? Or does it depend on what the service they’re actually providing is?

What do you think?

Feel free to further expand on your response in the comments section of this post.

Madar Research Reports Growth In Online Advertising Spend

July 30, 2008July 30, 2008 MMM

Madar Research reports that online advertising spend in the GCC-Levant region registered a growth twice the global rate in 2007. Travel/Hospitality and Real Estate sectors emerged as top online advertising spenders in the region during the past year with a combined outlay comprising nearly half (45%) of the total online spend.

As in previous years, the ongoing rapid growth in online advertising spend in the GCC-Levant region still failed to deliver a market share on par, or at least comparable, with the current world statistics. However, this scenario is expected to improve over the long term as the global market reaches maturity, causing a stable, less rapid growth compared to that of the regional market.

Overall global advertising spend grew by 5.2% last year (2007) fueled by developing markets, whose advertising spend growth managed to offset the comparatively slower growth experienced in developed markets like the United States. On the other hand, total ad spending in the GCC-Levant region rose by approximately 19.4% in 2007, with UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar registering the most growth.

# Source: MediaME

Ayna Launches Beta Of Online Map Service for the Middle East & North Africa

July 29, 2008July 29, 2008 MMM 11 Comments

A few days ago, Arab search engine Ayna launched a beta version of Ayna Maps, a service that provides interactive maps of places and businesses for all major Arab capitals in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Ayna is one of the first Arabic search engines in the region, and now aims to grow its search services by providing more types of information like its new street level map service covering 26 cities in 17 countries and presented in Arabic and English.

Ayna maps aims to provide detailed street level mapping that is not available through any other online service, including Google, Yahoo, and MapQuest; in order to give businesses and individuals alike the possibility to easily locate and add points of interest. As of the launch, Ayna Maps are preloaded with over fifty thousand searchable points of interest available in Arabic, English and French to meet the needs of local audiences.

Businesses will be able to mark their physical location on a map to guide their customers, and easily embed the marked map in any web site along with their contact details, such as name, address, phone, email, and a descriptive summary.

Cities covered by Ayna maps include: Beirut (Lebanon); Damascus (Syria); Baghdad (Iraq); Amman, Aqaba (Jordan); Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Madina (Saudi Arabia); Kuwait City (Kuwait); Doha (Qatar); Manama (Bahrain); Dubai, Abu Dhabi (UAE); Muscat (Oman); Sanaa (Yemen); Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurguda (Egypt); Khartoum (Sudan); Tripoli (Libya); Tunis (Tunisia); Algiers (Algeria); Rabat, Marrakech (Morocco).

Ayna Maps future releases include providing routing and directions, updating map data, and publishing submitted points of interest for businesses in the region. A mobile version of the map service will also be launched soon.

The idea is a very useful one and really needed in the region, and for an initial beta release it is pretty good; Hopefully future versions will have more detailed and revised maps, with more integrated points of interest.

# Ayna Maps

New And Improved Version Of Araby Directory

July 28, 2008July 28, 2008 MMM 4 Comments

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

# Araby Directory

Al Jazeera Labs Launched To Showcase New Media Group’s Innovative Developments

July 26, 2008July 26, 2008 MMM 5 Comments

Al Jazeera recently launched Al Jazeera Labs, a website that showcases some of the most innovative developments coming out of Al Jazeera’s New Media group; including new ways of interaction, and the possibility to get the news anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

From the Al Jazeera iPhone and facebook applications, to their podcasts and YouTube channel, to the twitter accounts they’ve set up for easier reception of news and interaction with presenters; Al Jazeera Labs will be the central point to follow and keep up with all these interesting projects and ideas.

Some of the published projects will be fully functional, while others might still be in Beta; Al Jazeera plans to build on user feedback to improve the different tools and applications offered through Al Jazeera Labs.

# Al Jazeera Labs