StartUpArabia – Page 53 – Everything About Arab Startups And Entrepreneurs

Blue Ocean Strategy (W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne)

June 13, 2008June 13, 2008 MMM 4 Comments

One of the really interesting business books I’ve read and that I think are really useful for entrepreneurs and business people is “Blue Ocean Strategy (How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant)” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

The book explores the authors’ vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike “red oceans,” which are well explored and crowded with competitors, “blue oceans” represent “untapped market space” and the “opportunity for highly profitable growth.

Using dozens of examples, from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks, they present the approaches these companies took to open new doors for their businesses and reach out to satisfy untapped demand.

The key to create these “blue oceans” and navigate away from the fierce competition and into very profitable waters is through what they call “value innovation”, that focuses on utility, price, and cost positions, to create and capture new demand and to focus on the big picture, not the numbers.

The book isn’t just talk and theory, it actually provides a set of tools and frameworks businesses can use to develop their own “blue ocean” strategies. It’s more of a guidebook and action plan.

I personally found it to be a really great business book and very thought inspiring. A must-read for everyone involved in running a business.

# Amazon: Blue Ocean Strategy

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…”

Dine In UAE, UAE Restaurants Guide And Reviews

June 10, 2008June 10, 2008 MMM

Dine In UAE is a service that aims to be a comprehensive United Arab Emirates’ restaurant directory on the web, serving as a central point, introducing people to good restaurants all over the UAE.

It also helps restaurant owners promote the new and unique aspects of their restaurants while providing diners with an effective way to find and try new restaurants.

Users can search restaurants by name, by area or by cuisine, or go through the highest rated restaurants and most popular ones, to find details about these restaurants, their addresses, telephone numbers, opening hours, ratings, user reviews and comments.

Registered users can rate restaurants they’ve gone to and post their personal reviews of them.

A forum is integrated in the website to add more interaction between the community of users on several food related subjects like dining at home, sharing recipes, special offers and more.

Restaurant owners can add their restaurants and menus to the website by filling out an offline form. Restaurants have to pay AED 2,000.00 (~ $540) to be included in the directory. Obviously, it’d be much more practical if they could take this process online soon.

Dine In UAE was launched by Siankar Comm LLC.

# Dine In UAE

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…

SouqElArab & Nawaiya Launch Smallest PC With 3G Mobile & Premier Arabic TV Channels Online

June 9, 2008June 9, 2008 MMM

Press Release: SouqElArab.com partners with Nawaiya FZ, launching the Smallest PC with 3G mobile and Premier Arabic TV channels.
Amman, June 8, 2008

The Arab social Web shopping portal, SouqElArab.com, partners with Nawaiya FZ LLC. to launch exclusively On-line the Nawaiya’s convergence device the “Interactive Lifestyle Manager – ILM3G”.

The ILM 3G is state-of-the-art wide screen handheld convergence device designed to revolutionize content consumption on the go. ILM 3G offers full mobile phone functionality within the same device and enables users to access content, enjoy high-quality music and video playback and browse the full web while they are on the phone all using the same device – a first in the market place.

The ILM3G comes bundled with proprietary Nawaiya content portal designed to provide our customers seamless access to live TV, sports, movies and music downloads over Wi-Fi and 3G. Nawaiya has distribution rights to over 56 live premium Arabic channels such as Rotana Channels, MBC1, Alarabiya, Aljazeera, Dubai TV, Dubai Sports, Escape Music Channel, LBC, Future TV and many more.

With dimensions of 7.3 X 17 cm. and 2.5 cm. in slimness, it proves that the ILM3G is the smallest PC in the world with a 3G phone. It runs the full version of Microsoft® Windows® XP® and employs a proprietary touch-screen user interface.

The CEO of SouqElArab Inc. points; “This fantastic product is geared up for our Middle Eastern & North African clients whom benefit from such facilities and latest technology. Our partnership with Nawaiya is to reach out to the user with the state-of-the-art technology, vibrant in today’s world, and a great product offering for the businessman, the media lovers and people on the move. We are proud to offer the ILM 3G exclusively on-line to our valued community”

The ILM3G is sold in UAE stores and will be marketed and sold exclusively On-line on the SouqElArab.com Web site throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

SouqElArab.com, operated by SouqElArab Inc., is a growing Arab on-line marketplace in the making. It offers visitors a social shopping experience whereby they can network with like-minded people and shop at the same time. The shopping experience is based on members’ recommendations and feedback, where visitors rate and review products and come together to form a community based on their hobbies, interests and traits. www.souqelarab.com

Nawaiya was established in 2007 as an Original Equipment Manufacturer and Media Company (OEM-M) headquartered in Dubai Media City and focused exclusively on the ‘Interactive Lifestyle Manager’ (ILM) category, that emerging convergence handheld category packing full PC functionality with full mobile phone and 3G data functionality all bundled with geo-relevant and compelling content.

The company is focused on the vision of providing the Middle East market with a revolutionary mobility experience firmly rooted in and designed for the region. www.nawaiya.net

Accelerator Technology Holdings (ATH) Invests In ShooFeeTV

June 8, 2008June 8, 2008 MMM 5 Comments

Accelerator Technology Holdings (ATH) announced its investment in ShooFeeTV, a Jordan based interactive entertainment portal that will be targetting satellite television viewers across the Arab world.

ShooFeeTV will be boosted in its aims to combine mobile, online, and satellite technology in order to become this region’s original multi-platform TV guide.

ShooFeeTV haven’t officially launched their service yet, and typing in their domain name ShooFeeTV.com gives you a simple splash page, even thought they’ve been working on a beta version that has been available online for months now here.

No further details were announced about the deal, its terms or the size of the investment.

A more detailed profile of ShooFeeTV and their service will be published on StartUpArabia soon.

# Source: Accelerator Technology Holdings (ATH)
# Related: Ajabni (AR)

Study And Listen To Reactions To Your Product

June 7, 2008June 7, 2008 MMM

“Studying and listening to people’s reactions to the product, to how it’s packaged and how it’s priced, can make the difference between a thriving business and a warehouse of inert inventory. A product isn’t for everyone, it’s for someone.

— Seth Godin ; ‘The Big Moo‘

meOwns, A Social Tool To Publish Collections Of What You Own

June 5, 2008June 5, 2008 MMM 3 Comments

meOwns is a new web application that helps people complete another bit of their public personal profile on their blogs, social networks and other personal web pages by publishing personal collections of things they own.

The idea behind the service is that you might not be able to tell what kind of person someone is just by the way they look, but that you can get a better idea by knowing what they own.

As a user you can use the service to build and maintain collections of the items you own, create a personal wish list or import one you already have on Amazon, as well as add items from other people’s collections and wish lists to your own.

It’s also possible to get in contact with other users directly through the site, by sending them a message and choosing which of your contact details you’d like share with them for the reply (Email, Yahoo ID or Windows Live ID).

The meOwns blog talks about the possibility of launching a garage sale for items you want to sell, as well as the ability to request to buy items from other people. It seems these features still haven’t been officially rolled out, but they sound really neat. It’ll be interesting to see how the whole buying/selling/price details will be handled.

meOwns allows users to integrate many of the service’s basic functionalities into their personal blogs and websites through a customizable widget, which lets them directly maintain their collections and items, and also lets other users interact with it and the items in it. The widget is also available as a facebook application that can be added to the user’s profile.

Items from other users can be found through popular tags, popular types of items, or searched for using the quick or advanced search options. You can also check out other user’s pages and see what collections and items they own by searching for them or browsing the top users list.

meOwns was launched from Alexandria, Egypt by eSpace Technologies.

# meOwns

New Monthly Arabic Entrepreneur Magazine In MENA Region

June 4, 2008June 4, 2008 MMM

The first issue of the Arabic edition of the well known monthly magazine Entrepreneur is going to be published the beginning of June for the MENA region.

The original English language Entrepreneur magazine celebrated its 31st anniversary in May 2008.

The magazine’s focus on the entrepreneurial market has made it one of the leading resources for starting and growing businesses.

The new Arabic edition is published under license from Entrepreneur Media Inc. by Sawahel Al-Jazeera ltd. a publishing and advertising agency based in Riyadh, KSA, and will be distributed in all Arabic language countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Johara Aletaishan, Chairperson of the new magazine, said:

“The aim of our new magazine is to promote the entrepreneurship culture among youth in the MENA region.

We want it to be an interactive magazine which links not only the editors to the readers but also reader to reader in the region to promote business activities.

The New Magazine “Entrepreneur –MENA” will cover all the topics which may be of interest to the entrepreneurs.”

Neil Perlman, President of Entrepreneur Media Inc. – said :

“Entrepreneurial leaders drive economic success for themselves and their respective communities, and we’re pleased the first issue of Entrepreneur – MENA will carry this message to the region’s Arabic language countries. It’s invaluable for us to have the magazine’s message translated by Sawahel Al-Jazeera Ltd. to support young leaders in their entrepreneurial pursuits.”

From the titles shown on the cover of the first edition, it looks like it will be bringing some really useful content to entrepreneurs in the Arab region; with some local content, and some translated material; one thing I hope they’ve taken into consideration though is to not just translate some of the business articles as is, but to take the Arab business environment and context into consideration, and try to adapt these articles to the region.

# Entrepreneur MENA