In his “famous” Cairo speech in 2010, US president Obama made a promise for a new beginning with Muslims. While many observers call it a new conspiracy or decoy under the banner of “help,” others call it a genuine one for a new beginning.
Among the pillars of his promise is to help foster entrepreneurship and tech innovation in the Muslim world. We had contacted the US embassy in Amman, to get some details of the plans programs and partnerships and today we are publishing them unedited the way they were sent. Though this plan and programs date back to mid of 2010, they might have changed so we will contact the US State department to get an update in the over all strategy and on each plan:

EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
Entrepreneurs for a New Beginning
Entrepreneurs for a New Beginning is a new two-way professional exchange program for rising business and social entrepreneurs. The Department of State is forging relationships to offer participants educational seminars, mentorship, and first-hand experience in the business place with American entrepreneurs. The program will connect participants with outbound American entrepreneurs and will examine strategies used in the United States to enhance the capacities of young business managers, to develop a spirit of entrepreneurship and small business enterprise, and to strengthen societies through the pursuit of social entrepreneurship. This program will bring 100 entrepreneurs to the U.S. over the next 4 years and will also work with private sector partners to send 100 American entrepreneurs abroad over the next four years. More information can be obtained from the Department of State.

Science and Technology Education Exchanges
During his speech in Cairo, the President said that “education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century.” This new science and technology exchange program will bring 25 science teachers from Muslim-majority countries and communities to examine effective methods of teaching science at the primary and secondary school levels. The program will explore how to nurture and support hands-on science education, how to demonstrate the relevance of science for children, and how to create a setting in which children actively engage in scientific learning. In addition, the participants will observe extracurricular science camps and science fair educational programs that emphasize experiential learning.

Professional Technical Exchanges for Women
TechWomen is a new professional mentorship program for women from eligible countries who are working in the field of technology. “Selected participants will travel to the United States in the spring of 2011″ to work with mid-level female employees in various companies in technology hubs such as Silicon Valley. Upon the completion of their mentorships, select American counterparts will travel to the participants’ home regions to offer skills development and networking workshops for a broader range of women.

Young Entrepreneurs Program
Launched in September 2009, the Young Entrepreneurs Program is a professional exchange program that promotes entrepreneurial thinking, job creation, business planning, and management skills to assist young professionals. As part of the YEP, the Department of State “will launch a new initiative called Education to Employment Fellows. Beginning in 2009, this initiative will bring at least thirty fellows from eligible countries to the United States for internships that will aid their professional development.”

DIRECT ASSISTANCE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
USAID’s Commitment to Support Entrepreneurship
USAID will support all stages of the entrepreneurship ecosystem by working with partners to strengthen the business enabling environment, expand educational opportunities, facilitate market opportunities and access to capital, and build connectedness and business support. Specific efforts USAID plans to undertake include:
• Support business enabling environment reforms in 15 partner countries.
• Undertake surveys in five countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey, and Egypt) and use their findings to work together with local private partners to promote supportive environments to encourage economic growth.
• Provide open source web-and media-based entrepreneurship education targeted for women, youth, and other underserved audiences on topics ranging from starting and growing a business to the use of internet technologies…..
• Support local educational programs to build capacity among business owners and their employees.
• Facilitate entrepreneurs’ access to private sources of finance (e.g., microfinance institutions, venture capital funds, commercial banks).
• Develop and expand business innovation centers.
• Develop partnerships to expand the number of companies and volunteers assisting entrepreneurs in developing countries, thereby building partnerships between entrepreneurs in the U.S. and abroad.

Small Business Administration Partnerships with Oman, Bahrain, Tunisia
SBA and the Department of State have entered into several agreements with Oman, Bahrain, and Tunisia to assist women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa. Through these Memorandums of Understanding, SBA will provide guidance and assistance in developing and implementing loan guarantee programs, government procurement policies, entrepreneurial development programs and business centers, and support to strengthen women and small and medium enterprises.

Global Entrepreneurship Program
A new effort led by the Department of State in partnership with the Department of Commerce, USAID, OPIC, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Global Entrepreneurship Program will coordinate, integrate, and leverage existing U.S. Government and private sector resources, partnerships, and programs to support six methods of supporting entrepreneurs: Identify, Train, Connect, Guide to funding, Sustain, and Celebrate. The proposed program has twelve focus countries throughout the world, including seven Muslim-majority countries. The Department of State and USAID have launched the first pilot program in Egypt and will soon launch the second in Indonesia. ( already launched in Egypt)

FINANCING FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
Global Technology and Innovation Fund
In response to President Obama’s Cairo speech last June, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) launched the global technology and innovation call for privately managed investment funds in October 2009. The Funds will make investments in start up and growth oriented companies in the telecommunications, media, and technology sectors. Some Funds will utilize a “technology transfer” strategy by importing existing technology in developed countries to increase innovation and efficiency in sectors such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure. In addition, the Funds will promote the economic and social development of the target countries. With the private sector capital catalyzed by OPIC, these Funds will have the potential to mobilize over $2 billion in private equity capital for Muslim-majority countries. All Funds remain subject to review and approval of OPIC’s Board of Directors. ( already hundred of millions has been given to VC and PE in the Arab world)

STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIPS
Partners for a New Beginning
Partners for a New Beginning will be a group of eminent Americans from a variety of sectors – corporate, philanthropic, education, non-profit, entertainment – who will leverage resources and capabilities outside the U.S. Government to advance the vision for a new beginning with Muslim communities around the world. Partners for a New Beginning will be an independent, self-administered group that will operate in close coordination with the Department of State.

Expanding Ties With Silicon Valley
The Department of State will collaborate with partners in Silicon Valley to launch two of the first Silicon Valley-based incubators and venture capital funds in the Middle East, Turkey, and Southeast Asia. Both efforts will provide venture capital, Silicon Valley mentorship, technology and connectivity to emerging entrepreneurs in 5 locations – Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, and Malaysia. In addition to helping provide technological and financial expertise and access to capital and other services, these two efforts will help to build ties between business and educational communities in the United States and those in the countries in which it operates.

What might be worrisome for Arab online activists that Twitter might collaborate with Arab oppressive regimes after Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, and Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), announced today, Monday, December 19th 2011, a combined investment of $300 Million in Twitter.

Prince Alwaleed has a strong presence and influence in media through his investments in entertainment and media entities in the Arab world, and beyond, such as the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), in which Kingdom Holding holds a 29.9% stake. The publications that fall under SRMG include Asharq Al Awsat, Al Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Hia magazine, Al Majalla magazine, Arrajol magazine and Sayidati magazine. Furthermore, other entities that fall under SRMG are Al Khaleejiya for Publicity Advertising and Public Relations and Al Madina Printing and Publishing Company. KHC is also owner of approximately 7 percent of News Corporation’s Class B Common Stock.

In February 2010, Rotana Group announced that Newscorp had reached an agreement to buy a 9.09 percent stake in Rotana Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, News Corporation will acquire newly-issued shares in Rotana for $70 million. News Corp. has an option to increase its stake to 18.18 percent in the 18 months following completion.

In addition, Prince Alwaleed recently announced his plans to launch his privately owned Alarab news channel. The news channel will be managed by Mr. Jamal Khashoggi.

As 2011 is about to end, history was rewritten in 3 Arabs countries and counting. Bu Azizi started something that can not be stopped.

But what where the top search terms coming for Egypt and Saudi Arabia? Google released today it is annual Zeitgiest a look into the year’s top google searches. We would like to note that Facebook and Twitter and news where the among raising trends. meaning more new users for both Facebook and Twitter and more interest from the general public in political news.

Fastest Rising Searches in Egypt ( we translated them to Arabic)

Jan 25th revolution

Mydan Al Tahrir

Facebook

Jocks 2011

7th day ( a newspaper)

Mubarak Trail

Twitter

Finance Ministry

Google Gravity

Love forbidden serias.

Egypt’s Fastest Rising People:
Mubarak

Wael Ghonim

Hisham Al juokk

Isam Sharaf
Tamer Ashour

Omar Katamesh

Hussien Salem

Ahmed Al Shahat

Ahemd Iz

Jamal Mubarak

Egypt top Google news:
Al Youm Al sabaa
Al Maser Al youm
Youtube
Masrway
Adustour
Facebook
news
google
al jumhuria
al shourok

http://www.googlezeitgeist.com/en/top-lists/eg/google-news

As for KSA: fastest raising searches:
Youtube
Facebook
hafez
games
twitter
spongup
aljazeera
heart heart song
al arabiya
bank Al tasleef

KSA fastest rising people:
Ghadafi
Myriam Fares
Ali Abdallah Saleh
Maher Almaakulai
justin Bieber
Mohamd Abdo
Manal Aalem
Khaled Abdul Rahman

KSA Googel news:
Mohamed Abdo
manal Al alem
Khaled And Al rahman
Itihad sports club
Egyptian league
Al Yaman
Reyal Madrid
Al Nasr sports club
Egypt
Barcelona

Spam is a major problem that the internet suffers from, to fight spam websites uses captcha when submitting a form or registering for an account.

Up until now Capthca has been using random English letters that a users needs to submit in order to go to the next step in registration or in posting a comment. But few days ago, UK based Hsoub launched Arabic Captcha. meaning it uses Arabic letters, and since Arabic words combine Arabic letters together it is hard for automated software to figure them out.

This is much needed initiative to fight spam and hackers in the Arabic web, but the Captcha does not work with people who do not know Arabic, since they do not know how the letter looks like after being combined with other letters.

Hsoub Arabic Captcha comes with API so any website can use. well done for such initiative.

UK based newspaper the guardian has launched an Arabic version of its website. The new site offers translation into Arabic from its English edition.

The Arabic site displayed news in chronicle order and sure the Guardian can do better to enhance it.

Competing for $40,000 and six scholarships to the university of Sharajah in UAE, 120 promising Arab students and scientists concluded their participation in the 2nd Annual Intel Science Competition at an award ceremony help last night in Sharjah under the patronage of Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi, member of the UAE Supreme Council.

Anas Eshtaya from Palestine won the first prize for his movement and gas detection project followed by Sara Al Nasser and Hayfa Al Bassam for 2ndh and 3rd places for their projects in the fields of Medicine and Health Sciences and Behavioral Social Sciences.

Other winners included Hasan Bani Salameh from Jordan for his project in Chemistry, Mohammad Othman from Palestine for his project in Energy and Transportation, Radwan Othman from Lebanon for his project in Intelligent and Safety system engineering.

In total 81 science projects were showcased according to Dr. Martina Roth, Director of Intel’s Global Education Strategy, Research and Policy.

Here is the list of winners:




Updated: typo edited, we are very sorry.

The number of mobile subscriptions in the Middle East (see note) will cross the 250-million mark during 2012, reaching 271.27 million at end-2012 and rising to 352 million at end-2016, according to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Additionally, the average mobile penetration rate for the Middle East will cross the 100% mark in 2012: It will rise from 97.72% at end-2011 to 107.09% at end-2012, exceeding the mobile penetration rate in North America (US/Canada) for the first time. (The mobile penetration rate in North America at end-2012 will be 102.77%.)
Iran will continue to be the biggest mobile market in the Middle East by subscriptions with   82.91 million subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 122.13 million at end-2016.

Saudi Arabia has the next biggest mobile market in the region by subscriptions, with a 50.8 million active mobile subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 71.32 million at end-2016.

Despite the take-up of smartphones and, to a lesser degree, mobile broadband in some parts of the Middle East, data services only account for a relatively small proportion of mobile revenues in the region overall. Data accounted for 13% of mobile revenues in the Middle East in 2Q11; the lowest percentage for any major world region other than Africa.

But this low figure also points to the growth potential for data in the region. Iraq and Iran, both of which are substantial markets, have yet to introduce 3G networks, for example.
In the UAE, smartphone penetration is already high and will continue to rise further: The smartphone penetration rate in the UAE is forecast to be 47.23% at end-2011 and to rise to 70.35% at end-2016, according to Informa.

In Saudi Arabia, the smartphone penetration rate is forecast to rise from 25.01% at end-2011 to 48.63% at end-2016.
But the rates of smartphone penetration will be lower in some other markets in the region. In Jordan, for example, the smartphone penetration rate is forecast to be 2.2% at end-2011, rising to 17.98% at end-2016.
While some countries in the region do not yet have 3G services, all three of Saudi Arabia’s mobile operators have unveiled LTE services. Etisalat is also poised to launch LTE in the UAE.
However, it will take some time for LTE to gain momentum. LTE subscriptions in the Middle East will number only 1.94 million at end-2013 but will reach 15 million at end-2016, according to forecasts by Informa.
Fixed-broadband subscriptions are also set to grow strongly in the region: The number of fixed-broadband subscriptions in the Middle East will rise from 6.51 million at end-2011 to 11.6 million at end-2016.
The report categorize Middle East as: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen.

More info about the research can be found here.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Group announced its investment in a new Venture Capital Fund which specializes in start up, small, and medium sized companies operating in the field of telecommunications and IT in the Saudi market as well as other international markets.
STC Group will invest an initial amount of $50 million that is self financed making it the only investor in the fund at this stage. Other local and international companies will be invited to invest in this fun at a later stage.

Eng Saud bin Majed Al Daweesh, STC Group CEO said that his Fund targets the local market and invests in local Saudi expertise in the field of IT and telecommunications in addition to other markets in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the United States.

The fund had been set up in an agreement with venture capital firm Iris Capital.

This is good news for Saudi tech startup community as startup based seed and early stage funding is still nascent. We hope to see more funds like this in Saudi Arabia and the region.

A hacktivist hacker hacked briefly yesterday Egypt State TV website in protest of its coverage of the events in Tahrir square. After Thousands of demonstrators re-occupy square in the Egyptian capital Cairo, after a violent attempt by security forces to evict them leaves 11 dead. Protestors were demanding an end to Military leadership of Egypt and a transition to elected government. Last Friday the square saw around 1 million people after a call from Islamic moment demonstrating in demand to end a paper from the Egyptian government that would put limits on people’s choice of the government, constitution and parliament.

The hacker on Egypt TV website left a banner with the Egyptian flag and a message in Arabic saying” this is a simple response to your silly coverage on TV, same failed and hypocritical policies. … we only demand that you transmit the real images. not people die and you keep a romantic images of the Nile.”




Jordanian gaming developer Quirkat has launched MENA Speed (Sur3a) on Sony Play Station, the company says the game works with both PSP and PS3.

“MENA Speed is the first drag race game with tracks in major cities across the Middle East, pumping adrenaline with screeching tires and burned rubber across the roads of Dubai, Amman, Kuwait and Cairo. The player can customize and upgrade the car then accept challenges across different terrains.

 
There are many different power-ups to enjoy by upgrading the car engine, gearbox, cooling system, and manifold to improve its performance; and customize its look with different paint jobs, spoilers and rims; all with a wide range of options.”

While it provides an edge “somehow” for regional gaming developers to develop games with local touch “or” feel, they are encouraged to rather create a new untapped and exciting games that can be combined with the rich Arabian and Islamic cultures.

Twitter trending topics are the most discussed topics on Twitter, last year Twitter added local trending topics to some US cities and some countries around the world, where it buzzed the most discussed topic coming from a given location. However now we can see United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey were added to the list , where users can see trending topics from UAE and Turkey. We do not know when these 2 locations were added, a user told us it has been there for a while

Looking at UAE trending topics we found some of them similar to those trending worldwide, with the exception of hashtag #Syria and #Egypt. As we can see all trending topics are in English due to the high presence of expats in UAE. According to latest estimation there are around 2 million Twitter users in UAE:
#Top100Lies
#ThingsWeDoDuringExams

As an estimated three million pilgrims have gathered yesterday on the plains of Arafat in Mecca for a key rite of Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage. Worldwide, around two billion Muslims are celebrating the holiday known as Eid Al Adha.

In this occasion ArabCrunch greets every Muslims worldwide: Eid Mubarak and may God bless you. And for our readers who are not Muslim, we say: Happy Saturated and may God guide you and us to the best.

You’ll find interesting information about the holiday of Eid-ul-Adha and about the Hajj at the following links.

-Eid-ul-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice) is celebrated throughout the Muslim world as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim’s (PBUH) willingness to sacrifice his son for God. Eid-ul-Adha is celebrated on the tenth day of the month of Zul-Hijja.

-The Hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah is a central duty of Islam whose origins date back to the time of Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH). It brings together Muslims of all races and tongues for one of life’s most moving spiritual experiences. For 14 centuries, countless millions of Muslims, men and women from all over the world, have made the pilgrimage to Makkah, the birthplace of Islam. In carrying out this obligation, they fulfill one of the five “pillars” of Islam, or central religious duties of the believer.
(source:�Ummah 2.o)

For more detailed explanations of the rich history and traditions of Islam, feel free to visit the following sites:

Islam Guide.

Islam Web

Islamic Tube

Just Quran

Best Islamic Sites

Sisters Magazine

#pic from Aljazeera English.

Nearly 2.5 million Muslims begin the annual Islamic ritual of the Hajj today, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime.

YouTube has partnered with Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information’ to live stream Hajj 2011. So now millions of people from around the world will be able to experience the event live on video. Here is the channel link: https://www.youtube.com/hajjlive

Last Ramadan Youtube live streamed prayers from Mecca for the first time.
and here is the live stream it self:



The website of a French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been hacked the responsibility of the attack was taken by Turkish hackers in retaliation for posting insulting drawings of prophet Mohammad peace be upon him. The offices of the newspaper on question in paris was also burned down according to Aljazeera Arabic.

The newspaper that sells 60,000 issues decided in making Prophet Mohammad -PBUH- its editor in chief for its Wednesday edition to mark the winning of Al Nahda Islamic party in the Tunisian election and the statement by Libya’s interim rulers that the country would be ruled according to Islamic Sharia law.

One of the newspaper journalist said that the newspaper Facebook page will close after a massive peak of angry comments over insulting the prophet.

Falafel Games, producer of the fully Arabic themed browser-based MMO game Knights of Glory, has been selected as a Finalist for Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the Asian business region.

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of hundreds from across Asia. The nominees are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

Falafel Games, with operations in China and the Middle East, was founded by Lebanese and Syrian Gaming and Internet veterans.

Updated.

Telecom research agency BuddeComm has launched its Africa – Fixed and Wireless Broadband and Internet Markets and Forecasts report.
It says that “Large parts of Africa gained access to international fibre bandwidth for the first time via submarine cables in 2009 and 2010. In other parts of the continent, additional fibre systems have brought competition to a previously monopolised market. More cables are expected to go online in 2011 and 2012. This has led to massive investments into terrestrial fibre backbone infrastructure to take the new bandwidth to population centres in the interior and across borders into landlocked countries.
Africa’s Internet and broadband sector is set to benefit the most from these developments. Wholesale prices for Internet bandwidth have come down by as much as 90% from previous levels based on satellite access, and the cost savings are slowly being passed on to the retail level as well. Broadband is rapidly replacing dial-up as the preferred access method, and this process is already virtually completed in the continent’s more developed markets.
Most African countries now have commercial DSL services, but their growth is limited by the poor geographical reach of the fixed-line networks. Improvements in Internet access have therefore been mostly confined to the capital cities so far. However, the rapid spread of mobile data and third-generation (3G) broadband services is changing this, with the mobile networks bringing Internet access to many areas outside of the main cities for the first time.
Many fixed-line incumbents have reacted by rolling out fixed-wireless access networks to expand their geographical reach. The technology of choice has been CDMA-2000 which supports broadband data rates with an upgrade to EV-DO standard. WiMAX technology, however, offers higher data rates and has gained ground in Africa with well over 100 networks already in operation. And also traditional copper fixed lines and DSL have seen a renaissance in some markets on the back of an increasing demand for broadband access.”

Top ten African Internet market penetration rates – early-2011
Country and Market penetration
Morocco
49%
Seychelles
41%
Tunisia
37%
Cape Verde
30%
Nigeria
28%
Egypt
27%
Mauritius
25%
Kenya
21%
Senegal
16%
Libya
14%
(Source: BuddeComm based on ITU data)

Full report can be found here.

Ideavelopers, managers of the Technology Development Fund (“TDF”) and is a subsidiary of EFG-Hermes, recently lead a Series A investment round in Offerna, Egypt’s first group buying site.

Established in March 2011, Offerna provides its customers with deals that feature discounts of 50-90% for various products and services, in return guaranteeing merchants a minimum number of buyers.

Offerna competes with regional group buying sites such as GoNabit which was acquired by living social and Cobone which is part of Jabbar group. Offerna which currently focuses on the Egyptian market is planning a regional expansion.

Offerna is lead by Abdullah Assal, founder and CEO, who returned to Cairo after completing his MBA at Stanford to bring the group-buying model to Egypt.  Offerna’s founding team includes also Sinan Khatib, previously Director of Business Development at BuyWithMe, one of the leading U.S. group buying sites, Yasser Lotfy, previously manager of Etisalat Misr’s Mass Market Revenue and Retention, and Tamer Adel, regional e-commerce expert.

Offerna is TDF’s fourth investment in e-commerce-related companies, recently the VC invested in nefsak. Through its e-commerce investments, Ideavelopers aims to build a network of companies that not only jump start e-commerce in Egypt, but also allow for Ideavelopers’ companies to benefit from portfolio company synergies.

EFG-Hermes was one of the early investors in Maktoob around the year 2000, Maktoob was acquired by Yahoo in 2009.

Noqoush a Jordanian mobile advertising startup which announced in August that it raised 3 million USD in funding, has announced today launching its mobile advertising network for the Arab region called “AdFalcon”.

AdFalcon enables marketers and advertisers to reach their targeted audience based on so many factors like location, interest, device type and model, operators …etc. Furthermore, it also has a dashboard and reporting engine would help track the campaign performance and provide statistical results.

Noqoush has also revealed the launch of its developers fund and publishers program, where developers and publishers can sign up to start generating revenues by serving mobile Ads on their registered applications. Publishers and developers can get from 60% to 78% of mobile ads revenues generated by their mobile app or mobile website, Noqoush says it supports all mobile platforms.

The company said on its website that it is starting with 90,000,000 monthly impressions.

It is worth noting that the number of cell phones users in most Arab countries exceeds 80% of the total population, whereas it exceeds 100% in the GCC countries. Also, the number of mobile internet users is exceeding 25 million users in the Middle East and northern African countries based on a study published recently by spot on PR and effective measure.

#Press Release.

Two-thirds of consumers in the Middle East use the internet to research products and services, according to new research published by Econsultancy and Real Opinions.
The Middle East and North Africa Digital Consumer Report shows that 66% of consumers in MENA are using the internet to look for products or items to buy prior to purchase. Of these respondents, 48% use the internet occasionally and 18% use the web regularly to research products.
The report, which is based on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers across different regions in the Middle East, also shows that a third of consumers are currently purchasing products online, and this includes 27% who purchase occasionally and 6% who regularly buy online.
Online consumers are paying for a wide variety of products. Flights are widely bought on the internet in the Middle East, but other things paid for online include hotel reservations, utility bills and books.

Some 39% of respondents currently do not buy online but report they intend to, indicating that consumer interest in e-commerce is set to grow in the region. Some of the barriers to buying online include a lack of trust in payment systems, unsuitable payment options and the lack of online retailers.
Econsultancy’s Research Manager, Aliya Zaidi said: “The good news is that consumers want to purchase online and interest in e-commerce is rapidly growing, spelling out a clear opportunity for companies investing in digital channels. As more companies launch transactional online sites, consumers will become increasingly familiar with internet shopping.”

Zaidi continued: “Consumers also cited poor website design, unreliable delivery and inability to process customer orders, so a focus on best practice can help to remove some of the barriers to buying online.”

The report also examines in detail how consumers use a wide range of online channels, including mobile, social media, search and email.  Consumers are using the internet on their mobiles with 77% of respondents carrying out social networking, and 70% using email on their smartphone. Other activities carried out using smartphones include instant messaging, watching video clips and playing games.
Real Opinions’ CEO, Dan Healy, said, “Investigating the results by country reveals how diversified Internet usage is across the Middle East. An interesting difference is where respondents access the internet, with 34% accessing via internet cafés in Yemen while only 8% use them in Bahrain as 18% use free public Wi-Fi networks.  There clearly is a challenge for some countries to catch-up with others in the region. ”

Key survey findings:
• The lack of trust in payment is cited as a barrier to buying online by 43% of respondents. The second most cited issue is unsuitable payment options, mentioned by over a third (36%) of respondents.
• Social networking is the most popular online activity across the Middle East with 88% of consumers reporting they use the internet for this daily.
• Facebook is overwhelmingly the most popular social media site in the Middle East, with some 98% of respondents stating they use the site.

About this report
The Middle East and North Africa Digital Consumer Report is based on a survey (commissioned by Econsultancy and conducted by Real Opinions) of more than 2,000 consumers across North Africa, the Levant and the GCC. Respondents came from the Real Opinions online panel across the Middle East from a pool of over 100,000 internet users.
The 55-page report looks at internet usage in the MENA region, including the types of products and services purchased by consumers online. The report also examines in detail how consumers use a wide range of online channels, including mobile, social media, search and email.
The survey results are broken down for North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf states. Certain questions are split out further for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The results show that cultural, demographic and population differences between countries can have far-reaching consequences for marketers in this region.
Report URL
http://econsultancy.com/reports/middle-east-digital-consumer-report

Maysalward announced today that is has received investment round from Turkish venture capital firm Timar Ventures.
Maysalward is one of the first if not the first mobile games developer in the Arab region. It was founded in 2003 in Jordan with offices in Amman and Irbid.

Maysalward has a portfolio of 35 mobile games and 20 online games with titles such as Trix, Tarneeb and Balote regional card games, which were in the top download charts over the past 5 years.  Portfolio includes Tawla backgammon, street football, super arcanoid, word search and other casual and classic arcade games. Maysalward games can be found Nokia Ovi Store, BlackBerry App World, Apple App Store and other independet App stores & operator portals. The Company latest games just launched include “Hand” (a variant of Rummy) on the BlackBerry App World and “Colonel” on Apple App Store. The company says on Nokia Ovi store during 2011it has exceeded more than 250,000 downloads.

Timer Ventures, is chaired by Dr. Boulos Doany the founding CEO of Oger telecom. The VC has recently invested 1 million USD in Jordanian accelerator Oasis500.

The company says that this investment will help Maysalward focus in developing games over numerous App stores and expand in to several new markets.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

When learning one of the common programming languages like C++, English language in most cases is a barrier for young Arab kids to learn software programing at a young age.

Kalimat comes to bridge the gap by offering an Arabic educational programing language for kids in which developers write the code using Arabic letters.

According to Mohammed Sayed, the language is easy to learn but provides enough features to allow for complex programs and it has attributes that are familiar to developers such as Object-oriented programming, Dynamic typing , Garbage collection and creating .exe files.

The language is open source freely available on Windows , Ubuntu 32-bit and Ubuntu 64-bit here is a book in Arabic to teach kids how to use Kalimat.

Update: Samy the author of Kalimat says ” Just wanted to tell people who downloaded the September 2011 edition: There’s a bug that prevents the creation of .exe files! I fixed it in the October edition, available now from the official site (http://www.kalimat-lang.com) or from http://code.google.com/p/kalimat/downloads”

This project is important and I would like to ask fellow developers to joins the community and further develop it and enhance it. It would also be very useful for Arab schools to add it to their curricula and teach it for kids at a young age.

The project is founded by Mohamed Samy from Egypt, many thanks for this great offer.

Many startups specially Arab ones underestimate the importance of public relations in branding their products and in marketing them. Take a look at startup weekends events in recent Arab countries, does anyone remember them or what they do? does anyone use them? where are they now?

Public relations is a cheapest way to market your products or startup and entice people to use it, if people do not know about you they will not use you.

In nut shell you need to develop media contacts and write a well written press release about your product and services, and pitch your story to the media and journalists from the angle that interest them and their readers not yours, meaning if you have a cooking website you can target women life style magazines by pitching your story in a way that your startups saves time when looking for a recipe to cook something.

I am not going to go through how to write a press release and how to develop media relations, I am going to ask entrepreneurs and specially Arab startups to do the minimal which is having a blog for the company and email relevant media sites like us, with your news.

In your blog you need to keep your users updated with what is new at your company, example: new features, new millstones, new partnership deals and so on. And this is not enough you need to email the media.

Main stream media in many cases won’t understand your startup and the possibility of having an article about you is low. We do encourage to target them but here at ArabCrunch, because we cover Arab startups and the Arab tech sector, your news is important to us and our readers, so go ahead and start sending us your news and we will cover you “inshallah” in ArabCrunch English and ArabCrunch Arabic. You do not have to send a press release, just the basic news of what, when, why, and where. This effort does not need a team or a special PR agency, a startup of 1 or 2 people can handle a small job like that.

One note, we read every email that is sent to us but we can not respond to every email, however if your news is interesting to our readers we promise to do our best and cover it.

Remember in many cases startups die not because the startup idea is horrible, but because their founders did not do the minimal marketing and PR effort. And for those startupweekendrs please stop being lazy and do the minimal and email us

PS: here is 12 Ways to Market Your Startup With Zero Ad Spending.

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2 days ago I arrived  to my beloved country Egypt. I am planning to stay here for few days, in mind with  a new project that would help push entrepreneurship in Egypt and the region and I would like to meet the startup and tech community here.

The post title says that ArabCrunch is in Egypt, not that ArabCrunch is not here, it is. We already have Arabic tech writers and team members who are Egyptians like Mohammad Sayed and Moemen Mohammed, our security partner Spirula Systems and above all our readers and fans.

I would like in this trip to meet with everyone startups, VCs, geeks and our readers. So we might have a small meetup soon.

Apple has opened today its online store in UAE, not to be confused with Apple’s App store, Apple online store enables consumers buy Apple’s hardware and software online.

Now residents in UAE can buy online from Apple products such as iPhone, iPad, iMac, iPods and MacBook Pro at prices lower than those in the physical reseller market and deviled to their addresses in 3 days. Apple is also offering free delivery for orders with over than 520 AED.

Microsoft Corp. announced the promotion of Ali Faramawy to Corporate Vice President Microsoft Corporation and President – Microsoft Middle East & Africa. The promotion recognizes Faramawy’s strong leadership and his contributions to helping “to fuel growth across the region. ” It also underlines the growing role of MEA (Arab world) as an area contributing to the overall success of Microsoft.

As corporate vice president, Ali Faramawy will continue to be responsible for Microsoft’s operations in the Middle East & Africa (MEA) area. MEA is one of thirteen areas that comprise Microsoft’s worldwide operations. Microsoft said that “the area represents one of Microsoft’s fastest growing and most dynamic markets – and certainly its most diverse.” Microsoft MEA is comprised of 32 offices representing 79 countries across three continents. Faramawy has led the region for seven years .Ali Faramawy’s previous title was Vice President Microsoft International and President – Microsoft Middle East & Africa.
Throughout his twenty years career in the IT industry, Ali held different Technical, Sales and Managerial roles in different parts of the Middle East and in Europe with companies like Dun & Bradstreet Software, NCR Corporation, Yokogawa Marex and finally Microsoft Corporation.

Ali joined Microsoft in October 1997 as the General Manager of Microsoft Egypt. After a successful four year spell in that role, he moved on to assume additional responsibilities for the area of Eastern Mediterranean, which encompassed Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus & Malta.

In May 2002, Ali moved to take on the newly established position of Regional Director – in charge of Sales, Marketing & Services for the Middle East and Africa Region.

Ali graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, majoring in Computer Science & Automatic Control and has an MBA in Strategic Marketing from the University of Hull in the UK. He is married and has two sons.