Facebook is going away from its traditional zero cost marketing efforts to boost membership to its social network and counter its upcoming rival Google+. Historically Facebook relayed on viral marketing to push current members to invite their friends.

But recently several Facebook ads has been popping in the Arab world at Google’s AdWords on its partnership program with third party websites “Adsense.”

for example one facebook ad, titled: “chat with friends Facebook: lookup for your friends on Facebook and chat with them signup for Facebook today. The text ad link leads to Facebook front-page.”

Yahoo! is also using Adwords, recent ads spotted on Adwords entice users to signup to the new Arabic Yahoo Mail leading to this landing page: http://xa.overview.mail.yahoo.com/

This is an interesting step to see that Facebook appetite for new users in the Arab world extends to use advertising off its website. The same would apply to Yahoo!.

What is interesting too to that both Yahoo and Facebook are using the product of their rival to advertise and reach new users.

A number of mobile operators reported over Twitter that BlackBerry service is off in the Arab world and Europe due to problems from RIM.

Mobinil one of Egypt’s mobile operators says over Twitter the services resolution time is about 4 pm GMT today.

Update 12 GMT 11/10, service still have problems and not yet restored fully to all users.

Update: 13 oct. RIM says service is restored while many mobile operators offered to compensate customers.

#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

Things are changing for Arab seed startups, as we are witnessing many programs that funds seed startups being launched across the region: Oasis 500 and Meydan in Jordan, Tahrir Sq. in Alexandria Egypt, PlugandPlayEgypt center in Cairo, and Seeqnce in Lebanon.

The new addition to these programs is SeedStartup a startup accelirator based in Dubai. that focus on web. mobile and software startups.

Seedstartup has similar structure to Ycombinator in USA and Oasis 500 in Jordan, it . Entrepreneurs from anywhere from the world apply for the program through SeedStartup website through out its rounds. 10 startups are then selected to participate in each program round that last 3 month in Dubai. ( entrepreneurs have to move to Dubai for the duration of the program)

The program for selected startup include: mentorship, Seed investment: $25,000 ($20k if your team has 2 co-founders, $25k if you’re 3 or 4 co-founders) in return for a flat 10% equity stake, and Networking & introductions to sources of follow on funding.

During the program time entrepreneurs will build their products under the guidance of their mentors. At the end of the 3 month, entrepreneurs will launch their products and are ready for the next round of funding which SeedStartup will facilitate via an investor day where angel , venture capital investors and the media will be invited for a demo day.

SeedStartup says in its website that it can also provide follow on investment through its fund of up to $250,000 (917,000 UAE Dirhams).

The money for the 3 month period would barley cover the living expenses in Dubai, however moving to Dubai to work full time in your startup and the people and the mentors you get to meet makes the program worth it for seed startups, but I think you gota have a developer cofounder with you if you want to apply in order to develop it for you.

SeedStartup says in its website that the program will start on September 1, 2011 though entrepreneurs are encouraged to start submitting their ideas now.

Google has launched today Google Maps domains enabling local search within a country in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

The Interface of these local maps is available English and Arabic as well French in some countries. Google navigation comes enabled with new Google Maps domains. Google Navigation offer directions from one distention to another.

Also users can now in these countries create “My Maps” a customized version of the user’s maps. Say your favorite hangouts.

Google also launched Google Map Maker in Saudi Arabia and UAE, Google Map Makers allows users to use their local knowledge to practically edit the entire map – from roads, businesses, parks, schools and more

One of the oldest online news sites in Jordan Ammoon has accused Jordan Intelligence in hacking the site.

The sites’ editor in chief Bassel Elkour told Jordanian newspaper Assabel the hacking happened when the site posted a statement from some of Jordan’s tribal leaders criticizing certain parties inside the government and corruption in Jordan.

Okur added that the site received direct threats from certain Jordanian security parties one day before the hack and on the next day a message popped up on the site saying that “ because you did wrong to the images of the country your site has been hacked by Jordanian expats in Australia! ” Okus dismissed the message as a decoy.

Like Tunisia, Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries Jordan is a police state who’s intelligence interferes in all aspect of life: sports, tech community media etc and has strong ties with the CIA.

On the story that Assabeel posted about the incident one commenter wrote: “ anyone who accuse Jordan intelligence will die!”

The country has recently been witnessing demonstrations across many cities against economic conditions, inflation and in demand for policy change. The country’s main opposition party showcased last month evidence of fabrication to the last parliamentary elections’ results.

Jordanian opposition main demands are a new election law and a change to the constitution which allows the prime minister to be elected or emerge from a parliament majority block, rather than how it is done now: appointed by the king.

Banana Republics referees to CIA run dictatorship countries in latin America, where the government with elite businessmen work together via exploiting the poor population to profit from Banana exports in partnerships with few American businesses. Both the dictator government and the local businessmen are CIA agents.

There are other countries around the world that have the charisma of the banana republics they do not necessarily export banana, but they run via dictatorships in partnership with small elite corrupt businessmen who together with the government split the countries; “spoils.”

In most third world countries banana republics are the prevalent form of government, they are essentially police run states but with puppet parliaments to fake the population and the world that the citizens of that country have “choice.”

There are 2 forms of banana republics obvious dictatorships where political opposition are thrown to jail under very clear fake pretexts designed to terrorize the population and the undercover banana republics.

The undercover banana republic is more dangerous because they deceive the outside world of being a modern country, free government and that people have choice!!!

But how banana republics work and how they control their population and deceive the world that they are “modern” and “free”?

well, first in both forms of modern banana republics they both control the political system, the economy and the media.

Spy agencies: In both clear dictatorship banana republics and and undercover dictatorships most of government spending is on intelligence agencies and staff. how these agencies operate? and how do they recruit? well, blackmail is the name and report based payment or “project” based payments are what is used as a salary scale, depending in the report and the project “of interest.”

Corrupt Business: In both forms of banana republics, the elite political community is very much involved in business, their government political power is used to help them run their business, via winning government bids, taking over newly privatized government companies or projects and they have their private sector partners to also help them in business. In banana republics both parties are part of the intelligence agencies. Now when a certain businessman or woman cross a certain line or refuse a certain order. Political decision is made to get red of him and his business and this is done via fabricating evidence that put him in jail for a long time. Or using a certain card they were holding against him/her in certain corruption case they knew about.

Now if the person did not have any illegal business practice, a new law will take effect by a government, the law will look like a good law but will hide certain elements that would put his business at risk. If that did not work they will resolve to other methods such as using females (temptation) or beat him on the street as a warning or cause him to think he is crazy and put him in mental hospital.

Political Parties: In both forms of banana republics they have other political parties. in the harsh form, they are the non-rolling party but they are not opposition, in the undercover banana republic they do have opposition parties, but those parties are cornered, all their members specially in the top are under surveillance and in most cases they are working for the government to fake the public that they are opposition. The second line of command and what is under they are not just under surveillance but often called for questioning by the inelegance agencies. Leadership of political oppositions and their families are also under surveillance and different methods are used to recruit their direct family members.

In both forms of banana republics they host opposition of other countries, some as direct opposition and some indirect. these oppositions forces are highly infiltrated and used to not just collect information about the other countries but also to blackmail when it is necessary.

In some forms of undercover banana republics the mainstream opposition (if it is Islamic for example) are banned to ensure that they can not operate freely and grow in popularity and that would threaten the current dictatorship and their private business partners.

Elections: In undercover banana republic they do have elections and they do have parliament, but how does the govemrnt make sure they do not lose power in the parliament? first they design election laws that would make it impossible for the main opposition to gain majority and if that did not work. fabricating elections results are commonly used.

Other intelligence communities: in undercover banana republics, not just politicians and their corrupt businessmen partners work for the intelligence agencies also lawyers and labor union leaders, not all of them but many.

Media: in harsh banana republics the media are state run and only very few private sector media outlets are allowed they also beam government propaganda of being “great” and the opposition are a bunch of criminals. Media are being used to brainwash the public and insure that the public opinion are not against the regime. In harsh banana republic, the public knows that the media is from government. but they say nothing knowing what would be the price.

in Undercover banana republic there is both state run media and the private sector media. however the private media is no different than the government media as their owners are government spies or obey government direct threats and orders and most of the column writers are also government spies. In Good “movies” undercover banana republics, you find different column writer: one who is pro Islam or other religion as a solution, one as pro freedom from religions and secularism.

The first is used to run government agenda by directing and deceiving the public into a certain government of islam or other religion that does not belong to the regional.

The other columnist job is deceive the public that Islam and other religions are “no good”.. terrorists, extremists, woman oppressors etc.

Banana Republics and Social Media:

Since you reading ArabCrunch you know that the Internet and specially new media has reshaped media for over. Facebook has over 500 million users, Twitter around 100 million, video and photo sharing and the growing spread of mobiles with cameras has made shooting and posting videos and pics as they happen. Want to criticize your banana republic start a blog in few minutes for free or post a comment on a forum.

With Social media nothing is hidden, the tools that the banana republics government had to control the media are out dated. news of corruption and abuse of power spread in seconds with Retweets. So how did banana republics deal with social media?

some banned youtube flicker all together. Some other entered social media to deceive the public that we are “engaged” and open with our people ( as long as under our control” and launched certain laws that would criminalize any citizen from even a Tweet!

Other used brought force to beat and kill anyone who think of posting anything that shows government corruption.

Now there is big talks about entrepreneurship specially after Obama’s summit. in the Arab world and there are few VCs and angel investors. but many of them are the same old school mafia guys who run corrupt deals with the government and work for their agenda. We are not mentioning any Arab regime here, we are not accusing any government of being a banana republic- CIA run. “no”

knowing all that would entrepreneurship work in banana republics? intelligence community is not just in politics, but also economy and media, would entrepreneurship really work? and how?

Please do not comment with a name of an Arab country that you think or is a CIA based banana republic, so we do not get blocked in those countries or even worse sent into jail. However since Twitter is not owned by us and Banana republic law does not affect them, feel free to mention country names there.

#image via 1 and 2

eHow is an online guide with more than 1 million articles and videos about how to do things. The site is owned by Demand Media a US company that is set to hit NASDAQ, as it filled for an IPO early this month.

Critics of eHow label the site as a content farm which pushes together an inventory of low quality articles and videos produced by low paid freelancers in order to boost search engine traffic.

Low quality English content might be a true case for eHow, but for the Arabic Internet, there is no content to start with. Thats is why a startup like eKayf which is a copy of eHow but in Arabic is very useful, at least there is now some Arabic content that has some editor behind it rather than content coming from Forums as 90% of that content has no  real value, the prof is that most of the time google returns wrong results for many Arabic keywords.

As of today,  eKayf seems to boost good amount of content dividing them into different categories: Internet, Computer, Work, Relations, Life, Health, and Cooking. Here is an Arabic post in how to use Twitter.

eKayf (means eHow in Arabic) launched in 2009 and is based in Egypt.

It is not a jock Obama’s administration plan for “entrepreneurship” in the Muslim and Arab world, as the U.S. government Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved recently a total of $455 million in financing to support the establishment of five private equity investment funds.

We  have gathered  data about the U.S. federal government plans for “entrepreneurship” in the Arab & Muslim world, so expect more independent coverage coming from AC. As for now here are the names of the 5 funds with some details, these 5 got the financing out of 87 proposals sent to OPIC.

1. Riyada Enterprise Development Growth Capital Fund: OPIC Board approved up to $150 million in financing to support the fund, which will invest in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout the Arab region focusing on tech. Riyadys is managed by Khaldoon Tabaza from Jordan and was acquired by abraaj Capital. Target countries for the fund include Egypt, Turkey, Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Oman, Algeria and Morocco.
2. Accelerator Technology and Innovation Capital Partners managed by the Jordanian mother company of IV Holdings which invested in Jordanian startups Jeeran, ShowfeeTV, Gate2Play, Wizerd Production, from UAE CONSERVUS, CONTENT SYNDICATE, from and SF, CA ,USA: IDEALRATINGS. The OPIC Board approved up to $25 million to Accelerator, the fund focus on digital content, internet services, mobile applications, mobile financial services, technology services and platforms, next generation media, entertainment and software development sectors. Target countries for the fund include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia among other Arab and Islamic countries.
3. KIPCO Opportunity Fund: PIC Board approved up to $150 million in financing to support the fund, focus: developing infrastructure and maturing financial markets in the MENA region, including in the financial services, media, infrastructure and information technology sectors. Target countries for the fund are Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, although the fund may also invest in other countries in the MENA region. KIPCO Private Equity,  is owned by Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) K.S.C. (Closed), a Kuwait-based company which to date has made over 60 investments valued at approximately $23 billion. The fund has a target capitalization of $1 billion.
4. Citadel Capital Joint Investment Fund: OPIC Board approved up to $100 million in financing to support the fund, which will invest in companies in various stages of maturity, including traditional buyouts, growth capital investments, turnaround situations and greenfield projects. Sectors of interest include waste management, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, and production of building materials and alternative energy. Citadel Capital Management Limited, is owned subsidiary of Citadel Capital SAE, an Egypt-based company which is one of the leading private equity investment firms in the MENA region. Citadel Capital currently manages a total of $3.7 billion in equity and has completed investments in 19 platform  ompanies. The new fund has a target capitalization of $500 million.
5. Siraj Palestine Fund I : OPIC approved up to $30 million in financing to support the fund, which will invest in start-ups and SMEs in the Palestinian Territories, and potentially in larger companies with growth potential. fund focus: information and communication technology services, agriculture, clean technology, healthcare, education, manufacturing and financial service. fund manager is Siraj Fund Management Company, a Ramallah-based company owned by Massar International, another Palestinian company that manages a network of 15 subsidiaries operating in real estate development, financial services, and corporate business development. The fund has a target capitalization of $80 million.

Until recently Google presence in the region was with a small office in Dubai, Cairo and Saudi Arabia, with a small team whose focus was in Google Ad words, marketing, PR and Arabizing some of its products, excluding the fully Arabic Google’s Ejabat. While all the development work for Google has been carried out from its center in Switzerland.

However, we see now a major change in that direction as we see bigger regional push from Google, as its now seeking to employ more people in the region. This comes few months after Yahoo!’s acquisition of the largest Arab portal : Maktoob.

Recently Google was looking for Head of Arabia – Emerging EMEA, who according to the job post will be developing a business plan for google in the region and select which markets to focus on.

Google also is looking for a Regional Marketing Manager, Middle East North Africa (MENA) ,Policy Manager, Middle East and Northern Africa – Cairo or Dubai at Google and Enterprise Account Manager, MENA – Dubai.

As the trend of foreign capital continues to rise in the Arab region, some major players start to appear, shedding light on what the online Startup scene in has the potential to be. Today we introduce you, to Diwanee.

Diwanee Group in the words of its founders: “is a group of various companies dedicated to digital business”. It has come and brought with them, as they like to put it, all of their “Savoir Faire” appropriately expressing their sense of timing to start developing online projects in the region.

It must be pointed out that their colorful background of expertise ranging from Senior Executives and talented professionals in prestigious firms of the like of Tribal DDB, Condé Nast France, and Pixel Veggie, with a gripping sense of regional culture, is going to separate this group from the crowd, and we expect to see some interesting work from them in the future.

They currently hold 5 companies with a strategic alliance with Brightcove, an Internet TV platform/network that allows content makers to monetize their content with ad revenues.

We got some answers straight from Hervé Cuviliez, a Managing Partner in Diwanee, in addition to being Executive VP, Middle East & Africa at Tribal DDB and Managing Director at Kuv Capital. He  thankfully agreed to answer some questions we had regarding Diwanee Group, its plans in the region and more:

(Herve was a speaker in the last ArabCrunch demo 09 event.)

AC: How long has the group been established officially?
Hervé: Officially 3 months

AC: How long unofficially?
Hervé: One and a half year, Diwanee is the consolidation of activities we have previously funded in which we were detaining a majority stake. We have always asked our companies to create synergies and work together. Today, the creation of Diwanee is one step closer in our ambition to create a leading Internet group in the Middle East.

AC: Why the name Diwanee?
Hervé: Diwanee, which could be interpreted as a collection of great ideas. Our logo is a combination of the English and Arabic pronunciation “I”. We played with the double “ee“ in grey for the latin way of writing it, and the ‘ي’ in red for Arabic.

AC: What is your relationship with KUV Capital?
Hervé: Kuv capital is a financial company. Its job is to invest our partners’ money. Today, Kuv Capital is the sole shareholder of Diwanee, but in the future, we are planning to welcome new partners within Diwanee in order to accelerate its development.

AC: As VP of Tribal DDB, should we consider this an act of massive expansion in the region?
Hervé: Yes, One of our agencies Pixel Veggie represents Tribal DDB in the MENA region; we are planning to have a Pixel Veggie office in every MENA country.

AC: How did the acquisition of Pixel Veggie happen? Should small/medium web development firms be on the look out for acquisition