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.

#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

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.

eMerchantPay, a European-based provider of online payment processing solutions to merchants worldwide, has partnered with cashU, a prepaid card payment gateway in the Arab world, with this partnership eMerchantPay will be able to offer a cash payment method for its clients to better serve customers in geographies where non card payment use is dominant.

With its focus on internet payments in the Middle East and North Africa, cashU will help eMerchantPay meet the needs of merchants across these regions and serve online shoppers in Arabic speaking and surrounding countries with payment solutions.

Founded in 2002, eMerchantPay his an online payment processing market player. eMerchantPay’s payment gateway is registered as Level 1 PCI DSS Compliant which ensures a robust payment card data security processes — including prevention, detection and appropriate reaction to security incidents as well as flexible reporting and customization.

cashU, which was established in 2002 by Maktoob (now Yahoo! Middle East)  and now part of JAbbar, offers prepaid card payment in the Arab world and comepetes with N2V’s One Card.

E-commerce confidence among UAE shoppers is on the rise, according to new research commissioned by Arab group buying site GoNabit, a LivingSocial company. The company partnered with independent research consultancy YouGov Siraj to measure e-commerce sentiment among its registered users in the UAE. The research also shows users prefer to shop with credit cards.

This study comes after a one in March this year, the company now plans to release itquarterly.

“Historically, UAE shoppers have bought confidently from overseas websites, but have not had compelling reasons or opportunities to buy from local or regional websites due to a lack of choice, quality and trust. Our latest research reveals a significant attitudinal shift. The majority of people not only feel confident shopping from local websites, but they are actually buying twice as much online from home-grown sites as they are internationally,” said Dan Stuart, CEO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

The research reveals that 75% of respondents feel confident buying online from local websites, an increase of 18% since the March 2011 pilot study. Respondents are more than twice as likely to buy from the region where they are resident (60% buy once a month or more) than from other areas of the world (25% buy once a month or more).

In addition to revealing a significant rise in local e-commerce confidence, the research also shows a 16% increase in credit and debit card usage since the March study, with 69% of those polled now indicating that they prefer this option. Card providers of choice are Visa with 52% of shoppers using this brand and Mastercard at 38%. GoNabit and Visa currently partner on “Visa Days,” which provide special discounts and rewards to GoNabit members who pay with their Visa card. Third-party payment sites, such as PayPal, are less popular with 17% of respondents electing to use this payment method.

“A well documented distrust of credit cards among shoppers in the Middle East is clearly waning – with GoNabit built on the requirement that purchasers on our website transacts via credit card. This isn’t about small numbers either; the research shows that shoppers are prepared to spend up to $1,000 or more online in a single transaction. Consumers are confident shopping with us and making large purchases and they’re confident using their credit card to do it,” said Sohrab Jahanbani, COO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

Local commerce continues to serve as a great entry point into e-commerce for consumers new to online transactions. In the last six months, 38% of users polled have made their first online purchase. Given that the research sample is made up of registered GoNabit users, there is a strong likelihood that a GoNabit deal has introduced these people to online shopping.

Overall, consumers are optimistic about shopping online in the future – 45% claim that they will branch out and buy different kinds of products online and 34% predict they will spend more money on future purchases. Almost 40% of respondents said they plan to purchase more from websites based in the Middle East region and 41% said they would try shopping from a wider range of websites.

GoNabit says that this optimism and increased confidence in shopping online is a positive sign for merchants, as is the purchasing power of those polled: 44% have a monthly income of $5,000 or more.

The survey was conducted by independent research firm YouGovSiraj between 24th and 31st July 2011, using the GoNabit UAE customer database. Total sample size was 2,470 respondents, 50% male 50% female 65% under 35, Asian 52%, Arab 18% and Westerners 24%.

#image credit.

Lisa Kawar a Jordanian mom was looking for a certain product and had to visit so many stores and waste a lot of time, checking around where to find it. that’s when she thought “why dont we have a website, on which we can search for products in the different stores in town” and Menwayn was born.

Menwayn launched about a week ago in beta mood covering only Jordan for the time being, is a comparison shopping site for a wide range of products the are available on brick and mortar stores such electrical appliances, office equipment, furniture and products for the whole family including babies, kids and teens, meaning the site does not offer its own bought products or manages inventory and fulfillment.

The site offers consumers to list products according to the option the they chose such as brand, technology, dimensions, price range or seller name. Products can also be listed to all the sellers who have this product their location, full contact details, their listed prices, and even special offers when available. However what is lacking is a feature that can list a single product availability in all stores and the price list of each store for that product.

Menwayn offers offline stores a free admin panels to add and update their products list with information such as description, availability, price, contact details and special offers. Lisa has told us the site secured 25 stores in Jordan from big local brands such as ike hikmat yassin, hani darwish khalili, tahboub, zaki ghul, smart buy, and issa murad.

Lisa told us she plans to add more Arab countries soon and plans to enable users to buy products online. The site is available in Arabic and English and is incubated in Jordan’s accelerator Oasis 500.

MarkaVIP, a home grown private sales website, today announced its expansion across the region.

The flash sales model, already well established in the U.S. and Europe, works on the forces of time urgency and scarcity. MarkaVIP sources excess or introductory inventory from premium brands worldwide to be sold to its private members within a limited period of time. In return, the customer gets much lower prices than they would normally be offered and opportunities to purchase products they may not otherwise have.

The site was launched in Jordan and Saudi Arabia in November 2010. Eight months later, the company is reporting that its rapidly approaching half a million members and attracts between 2,000 and 4,000 new members daily.

Membership to MarkaVIP is by invitation only. Customers must be invited, referred or approved to join the site, presenting suppliers with an exclusive and discerning online audience. Once accepted, MarkaVIP members gain access to deep discounts of between 40 to 70 percent on men and women’s apparel, accessories, children’s items, electronics and home decor.

They also have the opportunity to access new-to-region brands that use the site to run introductory launch campaigns as a means of market testing.

Having recently raised USD3 million in funding from U.S, European and Arab investors, MarkaVIP is expanding to the rest of the GCC countries and Lebanon. It reported that it now enjoys seven-figure monthly revenues and is on track to become the fastest growing Middle East e-commerce brand. It already is one of the fastest growing Middle East brand on Facebook with close to 140,000 fans.

According to Founder and CEO Ahmed Alkhatib, the key to MarkaVIP’s success has been market localisation. Despite the nascent state of e-commerce in the Middle East, he says the untapped potential of the region far outweighs the current barriers to entry.

“There are around 385 million people living in the Middle East and North Africa and 135 million of them are online currently. Internet penetration is expected to grow very quickly over the next few years, so we see a significant opportunity to provide the market with a convenient and secure online shopping platform that also delivers great value,” he said.

Alkhatib, a Jordanian American with over 10 years’ experience in Silicon Valley, has worked on some the world’s most recognized e-commerce brands during their start-up years, including eBay and Amazon. He also built the infrastructure for the largest U.S. customised apparel and products website Zazzle.com.

MarkaVIP has circumvented the challenges of low credit card penetration and cross border order fulfilment by setting up logistics hubs in every market where it operates. In addition to overcoming current infrastructure limitations, this hyper-local model enables MarkaVIP to develop offline relationships with its members and suppliers – a move which is not only generating strong repeat business, but is also helping to drive online purchases.

“Our results to date show us there is a real appetite for an online shopping model that works for this region. For us that means localising the flash sales model and e-commerce lifecycle so that we don’t compromise our convenience promise to our members. From the sourcing of our products, to how we market them online, our customer-focused user experience, and having product fulfilment centres in each of our locations – it is all designed to give our members access to great brands at great prices with the best possible delivery times and with no hidden charges or custom duties,” added Alkhatib.
MarkaVIP also plans further regional expansion later in the year. It competes with Jabbar’s flash sales site Sukar, where Alkhatib was CTO.

Today Gate2Play, an end-to-end payment and value-added services platform based in Amman, Jordan, announced a first-time partnership with social games developer Zynga to distribute Zynga Game Cards in 16 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. As a result of the partnership, Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in thousands of outlets as both physical pre-paid cards as well as virtual e-PINs.

Zynga Game Cards provide an easy way for players to pay for virtual goods within most of their Zynga games including Empires & Allies, CityVille, FarmVille, and Mafia Wars. Available in values of US$2, US$5 and US$10, these smaller currency amounts will give players more choices for the amount they want to spend on virtual goods within the game.

The partnership represents a way to introduce Zynga Game Cards into a region that is embracing social games while validating Gate2Play’s strong position within the MENA region as a premier payment aggregator.
Muhannad Ebwini, Chief Executive of Gate2Play, states that very few online users in the MENA region use credit cards, with the majority preferring alternate payment methods such as pre-paid cards, bank transfers, and SMS / Mobile payment –especially if they are available in small currency values.

“The pace at which the Middle East’s social gaming market is growing represents a significant opportunity for both Gate2Play and Zynga,” Ebwini said.

Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in nationwide convenience stores as well as region-specific retail outlets and telco operators. Through the partnership, Gate2Play will be making Zynga Game Cards available for the first time in 16 countries within the region including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.

Zynga is the world’s leading social games developer with more than 230 million players playing its games each month. Its newest game Empires & Allies, was launched in 12 languages and is the company’s first combat strategy game.

Daily deals, group buying web site Cobone.com has raised an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from Jabbar Internet Group. Jabbar, who are backed by Tiger Global, now take complete ownership of the company by buying out the minority shareholder, Group Buying Global (GBG), which is run by Klaus Hommels, a European Angel Investor.

Launched in August 2010, Cobone.com is one of the fastest growing group buying websites in the region, it competes with GoNabit which was acquired by LivingSocial and other local group buying sites in the region.

Cobone says in a press release that it has grown its registered user base from 1,000 to 600,000, to whom more than 240,000 coupons were sold and $13 million in savings. Cobone.com already has 75 employees operational in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Jabbar Group was created by the founders of Maktoob after Yahoo Maktoob’s acquisition were some companies that were Maktoob umbrella split to become part of Jabbar. Sites under Jabbar include souq.com, sukar.com, joob, cashu and advertising network ikoo.

E-commerce in the region is reaching the tipping point, as the market seems more mature to deal with this type of commerce, yesterday LivingSocial one of the leading group buying sites in the world acquired GoNabit.

Earlier this month, Ideavelopers closed a deal with Sherif Nassar, Founder and CEO of nefsak.com, where Ideavelopers will invest 10 million EGP (1.67639 million U.S. dollars) in his company. Founded in 2008.

Nefask says it has been the fastest growing Egyptian online retailer with sales increasing five times year over year. Today nefsak’s online catalogue has over 18,000 products covering a wide range of categories from computers and electronics to home decoration and fashion. The investment according to a press release will help nefsak develop into a household brand and scale its operations to meet growth expectations.

In his comment on the investment, Ideavelopers Managing Partner, Tarek Assaad said, “We are delighted to work with nefsak, we believe they are the leader in their market. The level of dedication and passion that Sherif Nassar demonstrated while building this company is impressive. These characteristics are essential in an entrepreneur whose aspiration is to build an amazon.com for the Middle East”.

This investment comes as Ideavelopers’ third investment in an e-commerce related company. In mid 2008, Ideavelopers had invested in SMART Cards Applications, a company that runs an electronic network for distributing food rations. Later that year, it also invested in Fawry, the leading provider of payments services. “We believe that e-commerce is reaching an infliction point,” said Ziad Mokhtar, Partner at Ideavelopers, “the people who were 10 years old when the Internet first came to Egypt in the late 90s are now entering the workforce. Adding the increased proliferation of broadband, this translates into a critical mass of users who feel safe, spend more time, and can spend more money online.”

Sherif Nassar started attracting the attention of local and international investors in late 2010. “I chose Ideavelopers”, Sherif says, “because I knew they can help support the company as it grows. They can provide necessary funds, sound strategic advice, and access to local networks”. Both, Tarek Assaad and Ziad Mokhtar from Ideavelopers, as well as Mr. Sameh Farid have joined the board of directors of nefsak.

Ideavelopers is Egyptian based venture capital firm a subsidiary of EFG-Hermes Private Equity. The firm manages the Technology Development Fund – a $50 million fund focused on early stage technology companies. To date, the firm invested over $25 million in 17 companies operating inside and outside Egypt.

Updated: below the post.

Dan Stuart CEO & founder of GoNabit confirmed that LivingSocial has acquired GoNabit. He told ArabCrunch that LivingSocial does not want to disclose terms of the deal.

He said “we have high plans and high expectation and we will expand to new markets” GoNabit is now a LivingSocial company “and likely down the road we will take their brand as they have awesome technology.” But he did not specify when.

Update: GoNabit sent us the acquisition  announcement press release here it is:

LivingSocial-GONABIT DEAL MARKS First E-COMMERCE ACQUISITION FOR MIDDLE EAST

Regional market set to mature with entry of world-leading local commerce brand

Dubai, UAE, 28 June 2011 – The acquisition of GoNabit.com, the Middle East’s original group-buying website, by LivingSocial, the online source for handpicked experiences at a great value, marks a milestone development for the region’s e-commerce industry. The deal is the first large-scale acquisition of an e-commerce company in the Middle East and signals further market maturity as one of the world’s leading local commerce brands enters the region. Under the new agreement, GoNabit will become a LivingSocial company.

Approached by several international group-buying players, GoNabit chose to partner with LivingSocial because of a clear alignment with the company’s vision and values. With a shared mission to create exciting and affordable experiences for members and valuable new marketing opportunities for merchant partners, GoNabit says the acquisition enables them to better serve their stakeholders and continue to pioneer e-commerce in the Middle East.

“GoNabit’s acquisition by LivingSocial is a milestone in the development of e-commerce in the Middle East. E-commerce is in its infancy in this region and the entry of prominent global player LivingSocial signals the next phase of the industry’s development here,” said Dan Stuart, CEO and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

“Our acquisition by LivingSocial has really strengthened our ability and resolve to continue being the best group-buying website in the region. Both Dan Stuart and I will remain in our respective roles for the foreseeable future and all GoNabit staff have been retained,” added Sohrab Jahanbani, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder, GoNabit.com.

“As with previous acquisitions, LivingSocial has again chosen to align with a local company that possesses similar values and ways of doing business. We are excited to enter the dynamic Middle East market and further strengthen our strategic global efforts to bring LivingSocial values to members across the globe,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder, LivingSocial.

GoNabit was co-founded by Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani in January 2010, with investment and support from Bayt.com, the Middle East’s leading job site.

Speaking about the acquisition, Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer of Bayt.com said, “I extend my congratulations to the truly dedicated GoNabit team for their success story. We at Bayt.com are proud to have been a part of a business that allows people to live their lifestyle of choice and we are eager to be involved in more innovative ventures in the future.”

Headquartered in Dubai, with local offices in all its markets – Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Amman and Cairo – the company has recently announced popular new deal verticals catering to specific interests. Dubai Family, dedicated to providing fun deals suitable for children and parents alike, and the pan-city GoNabit Getaways website which offers exciting holiday deals and travel packages are both enjoying a growing popularity. In addition to being the first group-buying website in the Middle East, GoNabit is the first company of its kind to offer deals in Arabic. Members in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Dubai, Beirut, Cairo and Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman have saved more than $5 million USD in the past year.

LivingSocial also announced its launch in The Netherlands; the acquisition of Ensogo, a leading daily deal website in the Philippines and Thailand; and DealKeren, an Ensogo company based in Indonesia. Along with the GoNabit deal, these two new acquisitions and the Netherlands launch bring the total number of countries in which LivingSocial operates to 21. The company’s reach now spans six of the seven continents.

Terms of the deals were not released.

Shoppers can continue to save and discover on www.gonabit.com.

About LivingSocial

LivingSocial adds surprise to every calendar with handpicked daily deals you can share with friends. Members enjoy at least 50% off on the coolest, local experiences. Local business owners get an easy and cost effective marketing tool to attract new, loyal customers. In 2010, one of the fastest growing companies in the space expanded with LivingSocial Escapes offering easy weekend trips at great value. In April, LivingSocial has unveiled Instant Deals – real-time, mobile offerings delivered via members smart phones featuring deals within .5 miles of their location. Based in Washington, DC, the international brand and has saved nearly 30 million subscribers more than half a billion dollars in 21 countries on 6 continents.

About GoNabit

GoNabit is an online marketing company that uses the power of social commerce to nab unbeatable discounts of between 50-90 per cent on things to see, eat and do in the cities in which it operates. It was the first group buying website to launch in the Middle East and offers businesses a risk-free customer-creation engine. GoNabit was founded in 2010 by experienced entrepreneurs Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani and is majority-owned and supported by Bayt.com, the number one job site in the Middle East. GoNabit has the highest level of Verisign’s SSL encryption and is also the first company in the UAE to have its database management verified by TRUSTe.

Each day subscribers to GoNabit get the opportunity to purchase an unbeatable deal on something cool to do in their city. To successfully “nab” the deal, it must first tip – the point at which a minimum agreed number of purchasers opts into buying the deal.  Once the tipping point is achieved and the deal goes live, any GoNabit subscriber can purchase it. The deal is available for 24 to 48 hours, or 72 hours for weekend deals.

For more information visit: www.gonabit.com

###

Update: the deal is confirmed.

Looks like group buying giant has acquired UAE daily deals startup startup GoNabit that has presence in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait. and indonesian startup DealKeren.

The news comes from Indonesian tech startup blog Daily Social. according to the blog the logo on DealKeren’s website today has changed, officially confirming that the daily deal site has been acquired by Groupon US competitor Living Social, and that the blog sources has told them that Living Social Bought GoNabit.

I called Dan Dan Stuart CEO & founder of GoNabit and he declined to comment in the story.
GoNabit was launched last year and is backed by #1 job site in the Middle East Bayt. Here is an interview with Dan we did back in July 2010.

We will keep you posted with updates and confirmation from GoNabit, however it is worth mentioning that I’ve been seeing Facebook ads for LivingSocial in Facebook for a to be launched site for Deals in Amman. Groupon the main competitor to Living Social has presence in the Arab Region in Duabi, Abu Dhabi and Sharejah in UAE.

We wrote before and e-commerce in Jordan and compared a number of sites, the winner who got investors confidence is Wheels Express. a  shopping and delivery site that expanded from just delivering DVDs into a number of other items including laundry.

Today at a press conference in Amman, Jordan, Oasis500 announced that Wheels Express has revived investment from businessman Emad Malhas and Kawar Group. The amount of investment was not disclosed. The startups is part of Oasis500 accelerator program and has received its initial USD 15,000 investment. according to a press release from Oasis500.

Wheels Express has demoed with MarakaVIP which received 3 million USD investment at Oasis500 angel network demo day recently.

achtART is an E-Commerce site for Arts and Crafts says it aims at helping regional and Lebanese artists and crafts-people showcase their artistic creations through an online platform and offer those creations for sale.

The site showcase artists products according to the category they belong to: paintings, home/ office accessories, design jewelry, wooden structures, not for profit, furnitures and fashion accessories.

Like any other e-commerce site achtART allows you to view items with their price add them to shopping cart and buy them at checkout. The website also features some of its artists.

The site has a nice concept but since it is about art, I think it should improve its design and UI.

Jabbar’s group buying site Cobone has expanded to Cairo, Now offering special offers to the resident of the city.

Like Groupon and Livingsocial Cobone works by offering special deal with deep discounts on restaurants health club and so on, users commit to the deal and if enough people buy the deal it goes live.

With this move Cobone competes Cairo specific group buying site: offerna. It also competes with other regional group buying sites: GoNanbit , Groupon, Fustuq, and Hmizate.

Jabbar’s CashU Competitor OneCard, one of N2V’s subsidiaries has announced that OneCard users can now buy Facebook Credit directly using their OneCard balance.

OneCard is a prepaid card located at more than 75000 point of stores across 20 countries, its users can top up their OneCard accounts using many local payments like Knet in Kuwait and UAEexchange in UAE.

Facebook Credits can be used to buy games gifts and points and to pay for advertising campaigns..

END

The group buying startups spree are everywhere now a days in the Arab world, we have Cobone based in UAE from Jabbar group now operates in Amman, Jordan, Dubai, Sharija and Abu Dhabi in UAE, Beirut in Lebanon, cobone plans to expand to Cairo and other cities in GCC region. GoNanbit funded by Bayt and based also in UAE also operates in the cities that cobone operates in plus Kuwait city , we have offerna from Egypt which is covers Cairo and we have Groupon opening a branch in Dubai, UAE and operates in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The new addition to group buying startups is Hmizate from Morocco who is targeting the Moroccan market with deals and discounts from many shops in Casablanca.

Like the others, Hmizate offers deals every several days with deep discounts to shops and restaurants that you can earn if enough people joined the deal. Say 10 people must commit to buying the deal in order for it to happen and you get charged only when the deal is complete.

The startup founder Kamal Reggad told us that his startup Hmizate has 100 000 subscriber and has raised funding from Himvest Holding a private company in morocco that operates in different sectors; advertising, real estate, energy… which recently started a fund for tech startups.

We do not know how much did Mmizate raised, however we sent an email to Kamal and we will update you here once he answers.

Update: Kamal declined to tell us how much they were funded.

Jordan based number one regional shipping company Aramex has been in forefront in harassing technology to grow its business. Today the announcement came that the delivery company has launched an API that enables e-commerce sites to integrate shipping tracking to ordered goods, thus enabling users to know where their ordered good is located now.

Aramax shipping and tracking API works 2 ways, websites submit shipping request via XML format or HTTP thus Aramex can get the info that an ordered has been made. Technical details about both approaches on Aramex site seems currently down. However if you run an e-commerce site and Aramex is your shipping partner keep an eye in this post for updates.

It is another day and we are still alive and free the news today Group-buying startup GoNabit has launched its Lebanese version, now offering special deals the first one for women.

GoNabit works by offering offering time limited deals with dissents that can go to 60-70%, and its uses your social graph to leverage group buying, if enough people sign for the deal it gets sold, so the more people you invite from facebook the more probability you get the deal. meaning you are a viral marketer for the site.

With this launch GoNabit is one city ahead of Jabbar’s gout buying Cobone. GoNabit is majority owned by Bayt. Tiger Global Management is one of the major investor on Bayt and Jabbar.

You can read AC’s interview with GoNabit founder Dan Stuart

http://arabcrunch.com/2010/07/cobone-a-new-group-buying-startup-from-jabbar-to-compete-with-gonabit.html

A new Arab Advisors Group’s survey of Jordan’s Internet users revealed that over 15% of Internet users in the country are also e-commerce users.

The Arab Advisors Group estimates the number of Jordan Internet users who use e-commerce to be more than 181,000 which is around 3.0% of the total population in Jordan. These e-commerce users have spent an estimated US$ 192 million in e-commerce transactions (buying products, paying for services and paying bills online) in the past 12 months.

We asked Danya Nusseir, senior research analysis at Arab Advisors about these number and she gave us the following: paying for services is around 75 million USD ( they do not have list of services that users buy), pay bills online around 42 million USD, buying products online around 75 million USD.

The survey also revealed that out of the respondents who have an ADSL connection at home, 13.5% share it with their neighbors. Moreover, the survey revealed that WiMAX operators had a 14.3% share of residential broadband Internet accounts in the country, up from 9.6% in October 2008. The survey also revealed that respondents who have a WiMAX connection at home choose higher Internet speeds than those who have an ADSL connection at home.

The Arab Advisors says that survey results answers were from 1,021 respondent which were used as a basis for the survey.

#image credit.

Souq.com was launched in 2005 from Maktoob group (Now Jabbar Group) as an auction site, it initially covered Jordan, then expanded into UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The site is not anymore just an auction site, but rather a marketplace for anyone to sell or buy, Souq.com supports many formats (auction, fixed price and Classifieds for the Real Estate and motor vertical.)

Selling in souq sounds a straight forward 123 process: register, add product name, choose the payment method, done. Once a user buys your item, Aramex will contact the you to collect the item, once the the items is delivered to the buyer the funds will be released to your wallet, now it can be transferred to your bank account.

Souq also has what is calls SouqSafePay, where it will release funds to the seller only once the buyer receives and approves the item.

On the Kuwaiti store, Souq also has a storefront for Kuwaiti bricks and mortar stores where users can buy directly from them directly.

Kuwait Souq is available in English and Arabic.

Sukar a private shopping club that offers on a weekly bases from well known brands at discount rates up to 70% has started offering delivery to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. It was available before only in UAE. Sukar was launched end of last April.

Jabbar group is the majority owner of Sukar, the other e-commerce company that Jabbar owns is Souq.com like ebay but for  the Arab world ( an auction site) has announced partnership with Mobily a Mobile operator in Saudi Arabia. Now Mobily users can use Mobily loyalty program points called “Neqatai” and redeem them in buying goods on the auction site.. Souq.com is available in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE.

Jabbar’s e-commerce quest did not stop in 2 companies, as the growing success of Dubai Based group buying startup GoNabit has led Jabbar to announce its own copycat called cobbone.

GoNabit managed to get the backing of Bayt ( a leading Middle East e-jobs site) as a majority share holder. Both Bayt and Jabbar share the same investor, NewYork based Tiger Global Management.

It seems the growing success of Dubai based e-commerce group buying startup GoNabit has opened Jabbar group appetite to enter the market with a new startup called Cobone.

Jabbar group which emerged after Yahoo’s acquisition of maktoob receiving an investment of 20 million USD from the owners of maktoob includes the following sites: souq (auction site) ikoo ( online ad network) CashU (pre paid online payment card) Tahadi (Arabic games), Sukar ( private e-commerce club)

GoNabit is founded by ex-bayt’s head of its venture arm Intilaqat Dan Stuart and has also received investment from Bayt which is a majority share holder. Here is our recent interview with Dan.

In few words, Group buying works by offering time limited deals, if enough people join to buy the deal everyone gets it, if not, no one is charged. The key is to virally promote the deal across social media and email, which help buyers close the deal and helps the site grow  virally.

Both Bayt ( the leading regional job recruitment site) and Jabbar, has the NewYork based Tiger Global Management a hedge fund as the an investor, Jabbar’s CEO is Jordanian entrepreneur and angel investor Samih Toukan.

(via the nextweb)

Group-buying is one of the web’s fastest-growing retail platforms, and UAE based GoNabit is the first to bring it to the Arab world. CEO and Co-Founder Dan Stuart answered some questions we had about GoNabit and its quest to bring value to consumers and businesses in the Arab world.

[Rock Sfeir]: What is GoNabit and what value does it bring to consumers and businesses?

[Dan Stuart]: GoNabit is the first group buying website in the Middle East. We source deeply discounted deals from local businesses to be sold to subscribers online within a limited period of time. GoNabit uses the power of social commerce to offer businesses a risk-free customer-creation engine.

[Rock Sfeir]: Many entrepreneurial-minded individuals are currently working in the corporate world and are unsure of when to make the move to launch a start-up. You were a part of Bayt.com before launching GoNabit. When did you decide that the time was right to launch your own start-up?

[Dan Stuart]: I’ve been thinking about this for a long time…but especially in the last year or so. I had an understanding with Bayt.com CEO Rabea Ataya that he would look closely and possibly invest in anything that I felt strongly about launching. My job made it easier since I spent my days looking at new launch opportunities and evaluating investment proposals.

That said, it was my passion…being on the pulse of what was new and relevant to the region. The key was to have the experience in sales, marketing and product. Without these in your leadership team you are in for larger challenges and won’t have as clear insight into what you are conceptualizing.

Eventually, I made a fairly quick decision, and started working…I didn’t think too much. I knew I had the capital to launch it, and the follow-on investment was verbally committed. You really need to be ready for the insecurity and sleepless nights. If not, keep your job and your sanity…but accept that you will never shape your own thing, too.

[Rock Sfeir]: Are you pleased with the sales numbers you are seeing? What items are currently selling out quickly?

[Dan Stuart]: We’ve done over 1,400 transactions in 8 weeks. Greater than 95% of that is e-commerce, so I think that surprises a lot of people …except me. I knew the will and interest was there. There was/is simply very little to buy online in this part of the world due to the structural challenges of selling online here.

People really like lifestyle products like massages. We do like to mix in some really quirky things too. It’s our testing phase after all, so we need really give the market a chance to give us broad feedback…and we’re listening.

[Rock Sfeir]: What are your plans for regional and international expansion? What is the most difficult part about growing regionally?

[Dan Stuart]: Every city is a new country…so that is tough. If I was home in Canada I’d have 15 cities of serious size to expand that all have one language, currency, and legal structure.

Here it is expensive, time-consuming and inhibits scale.

This is one of the reasons that very few online companies in the region are of any real size. They need growth to scale…and growth requires crossing many significant barriers. You can go be 5th biggest in India and have an easier time than owning the Middle East, because you can grow more inexpensively. Europe has made growth far more open. North America is much easier. The Middle East doesn’t do themselves any favors. That said, our strategic investor Bayt.com has a network throughout the region that we are leveraging to grow quickly. If you don’t have that you’ll have a tough time keeping pace.

We’re also sniffing around outside the region.

[Rock Sfeir]: How do you convince businesses to sign on with GoNabit? Are some business owners hesitant to take an initial hit in their profits, even if it means getting new customers?

[Dan Stuart]: GoNabit provides businesses with a risk free customer-creation engine:

• No upfront cost – either financially, or in terms of time. Merchants only have to be prepared to offer a discount between 50-90% off their regular retail price,
• An advertising investment concentrated on actual customers (nabber community exists to buy deals and have chosen to receive them),
• Large reach into young savvy buyers (social, internet savvy professionals aged between 24 and 54 and weighted to females 60:40),
• Brand awareness – an exclusive spotlight on your business  combined with the buzz and power of social media,
• An additional shop window without the retail investment,
• Certainty of a clear and measurable return on investment, and
• Increased customer footfall – the opportunity to convert the one-off GoNabit voucher user into a loyal customer

It’s an education process for sure…and we’re doing it quite successfully. We can always get better. It’s only been 8 weeks after all.

[Rock Sfeir]: What forms of media are you utilizing to reach people? Do you feel that certain forms of media are more unique to the Middle-East than they might be elsewhere?

[Dan Stuart]: Social media is at the forefront for us. It is inherently a social undertaking where people buy online and share these experiences with friends offline. It makes sense to share since you do better if more people know. eBay and Souq work well when the auctions are not popularly known…so the price stays down. For us, buyers benefit by more people knowing.

We have also been strong in the media in terms of building awareness while educating the market. We haven’t really cracked the paid ads egg too much so far. We’ll see more of that as we grow and as we move in later phases of our awareness campaigns.

I think the Middle East is like most markets with little difference for our purposes. The scale is just smaller, but the sharing is no less personal and the measurement of marketing methods no less critical.

[Rock Sfeir]: What methods of payment do you accept?

[Dan Stuart]: We accept cash, cheque and paypal right now. We have 2-4 more payment methods under consideration, but not necessarily as additions, but some as replacements and localized solutions

[Rock Sfeir]: What would you have to say to Middle-Eastern consumers that are skeptical about online purchasing?

[Dan Stuart]: If you’re thinking about buying online then you are clearly not satisfied with the speed, access and choice available offline. E-commerce gives you this. If you participate in buying through proper online sites then you grow an industry, and that’s an industry that brings you economies of scale that pass on choice and cost benefits to you….you should want ecommerce to succeed.

Ultimately, look for sites with globally recognized security certifications, certified data usage policies, clear and obvious customer contact mechanisms….and try out those contact mechanisms. Send a test inquiry. If you don’t get an intelligent, timely and useful reply, then go elsewhere. You want to know that your question will get answered properly. You are paying for this contact and confidence so assign it value and feel confident in a site that provides it…and give them your business.

[Rock Sfeir]: As the Arab world gets more and more connected to the web, your target market keeps growing. But, what do you feel is the biggest challenge to the growth of GoNabit?

[Dan Stuart]: The biggest challenge is achieving scale despite trying to grow in a market that is fairly sluggish in terms of ecommerce. It’s sluggish because of the self-fulfilling prophecy in the region: people say that people don’t like buying online so many don’t because they hear that people don’t buy online in the region.

In fact, 10,000s buy through Aramex’s Shop and Ship each month…so that’s not true. We do 50-100 online transactions a day…making us one of the biggest ecommece sites in the region already.

I think the myth is hurting the region. The payment providers are generally poor and apathetic but that is changing with NBAD and Bank Audi. People will buy online if there is value for them, ease and confidence.

[Rock Sfeir]: Essentially, it seems that GoNabit is taking a proven concept and applying it to the usually under-served market in the Middle-East. Do you see forthcoming competition? Is it going to be a new start-up, or an established group-buying business operating internationally?

[Dan Stuart]: I think we’ll see both. We’ve led the market, done the education and proved the concept for the cities we are in. There will certainly be others to see that we have laid steps for them to follow in.

I think we’re bound to see an international player sniff around the region at some point, but there are far more mature businesses here in the region who remain independent (Bayt, Souq, etc), so we’re down the list from them in terms of sparking international interest.

Again, the structural challenges in the region make entry in markets beyond Dubai a real challenge for anyone apart from a really committed regional player.

What I would like to see is a company like us use this knowledge gained in a tough market to move to new market outside the region. We need to work harder and be better to overcome regional challenges…so why not apply that to other challenging markets and build a presence?

[Rock Sfeir]: Where do you see GoNabit heading in the next couple of years?

[Dan Stuart]: Tough call. We certainly have a vision that the founders share to some extent or another. We definitely want to grow and be a sustainable business held to global standards.

I would like to have sparked the rise of ecommerce in every country in the region, built the largest volume of ecommerce transaction of any website in the region, and sparked a new industry of startups that believe that ecommerce is do-able.

I’d also like to have to hire some staff who speaks another language besides English and Arabic

[Rock Sfeir]: Anything else you want to add?

[Dan Stuart]: If you are thinking of launching a business, think big and start soon. Thinking small and waiting means you’ll never start, and even when you do, you won’t do much.

Jabbar group company cashu is offering Moroccans now the option to buy its Internet e-payment prepaid card.

Cashu was originally launched by Maktoob group in 2002 to solve the problem of the low penetration rate for credit cards in the Arab world which is still an obstacle for e-commerce growth in the region. Cashu allows users to funded Cashu credit using a variety of payment methods. Funds added to the cashU account can be used to purchase products and services on cashU’s online merchant base. Cashu joined Jabbar group after Yahoo’s acquisition of Maktoob in 2009.

The company has redesigned its site few days ago and has launched few months ago a mobile optimized version of the site.

Cashu competes with Saudi Arabia based prepaid card OneCard.