Traffic james is a major problems in condents Egyptian cities, there were several attempts to develop an application to tackle this problem.

Bey2ollak developed by a group of Egyptian developers tackles this problem at the heart it update users with traffic conditions in major egyptian cities and users themselves report conditions.

The site has an iPhone, BlackBerry، Nokia and Android app and is also available in web version and mobile web version. The app can get more useful if it can suggest alternative routs to jammed streets.

(Via ArabCrunch Arabic Edition)

in Arabic English and French. But the concentration is in Arabic. Especially the voice over:)Birdy Nam Nam is an iPhone/iPad game that was released by Lebanese developers Wryb Tech few months ago in beta mood as phase of collecting data and feedbacks.

Recently the game is officially launched the developers amended it, added more levels, weapons, character, they also amended the gameplay and revised the sound effects etc…

Here is the story of the game:

Early 2011, a group of Arab scientists in Dubai started experimenting a new drug on all kinds of birds; the drug was intended to turn birds into man’s best friend… They would clean the house, wash the dishes, do the laundry, cook healthy meals… Well simply make man’s life easier!

Everything was going well until something went terribly wrong, and the drug had a side effect which transformed those chicken into killing machines.

Without mercy, they fled the labs and started attacking Dubai, seeking for revenge. Their plan was simple : WORLD DOMINATION!

As the world was falling apart, people were crazily afraid and the fate of the human race was sealed: there was no escape from annihilation… Until a hero rose from the ashes, determined to fight back and save Humanity!

The player takes the role of the hero whose mission is to fight the birds invasion in a quest around the Middle East. The player will try to shote hostile birds, using many weapons and methods, even strategy for the advanced levels.

The game has 19 Levels including KSA, UAE, Beirut, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Qatar, etc.. We did not play the game because we do not have an iPhone but we liked it idea.

The game is available in iPhone and iPad iOS 3.2.2 or later on the iTunes app store. The game is in Arabic English and French. But the concentration is in Arabic. Especially the voice over:

And here is the game video from the developers:




Amman, Jordan based Noqoush Mobile Media Group, the Arab company specialized in mobile advertising and mobile media monetization, reported that it has closed first 3 million US dollar investment round.

In a press release the company stated that a group of Arab and Foreign angel investors lead the round but did not disclose who ( we will try to get their names.)

The company said that the round will be used to help Noqoush with developing its mobile advertising technology “AdFalcon”, what it describes “the region’s first specialized advertising platform developed to link mobile applications developers, mobile website owners with advertisers to provide them with the a chance to achieve financial returns.” Something that sounds similar to US based Admob which was founded by Syrian entrepreneur Omar Hamoui and was acquired by Google in 2009 for 750 million dollars.
We have little information about Noqoush, it said in the press release that it was founded in 2010. A linkedin profile for Mahmoud Iswaid from Jordan stats that he is a cofounder in the company, he previously worked with Yahoo and Maktoob before its acquisition by Yahoo. We will try to get more information and update you here.

Info2cell.com, one of the Arab region oldest mobile service application provider in the Middle East, has announced the recent launch of 3ala TV ( means on TV), a specially-designed interactive TV guide website – for users to find selected TV channel schedules and information about their favorite shows and actors. Users can also sign in the website for the latest news, read blogs and also participate in live forums.

Moreover, users can also create their own pages and select their favourite actors or TV programs, while also being able to add friends, who are already registered on this website, to their page.
The site competes with Jordan based IV Holdings funded startup ShooFeeTV. Having a quick look at 3alaTV, you find that ShooFeeTV is richer with information about programs and TV channels.

Scapehouse is a new social media site that might a little bet late to the Google+ game. the startup comes with a new vision for online discussion,

On facebook people share stuff with their friends only, on Twitter the game is different, people share with their followers who do not have to be their friends.

Scapehouse brings both: users can share stuff with their friends only or with friends and followers, something that is close to the idea of Google+ main feature: circles. The site brings full news feed page, where users activities of commenting or liking an update is visible.

Unlike Twitter, updating a post is not limited to 140 characters, and users can comment on each update in a chronicle order and can like or dislike it. Resharing an update is also available on Scapehouse and can be shared with friends only or with both friends and followers, with the option to add comment of the shared content.

Abdullah Khan cofounder of site who is the from Karachi Pakistan and currently lives in UAE told AC that they have been working on the site 6 months now and have launched in beta around 2 months ago, before Google+. ( the other cofounder is Ali Razzouk : From Aleppo Syria, Living in Dubai UAE.)

Now that Google+ has gained 10 million users in 2 weeks since its launch, Scapehouse has a challenging time to compete, But it was a nice idea nevertheless. Would you use it?

The interest in learning Arabic in the world has increased in the last decade, specially in in USA. There many reasons behind “why” many are learning or interested in learning the language. Some are Muslim reverts who do not know Arabic and want to learn it in order to better understand Quran and Hadith. Some are CIA/FBI agents who want to learn it for their spying, interrogation job, or when coordinating with other tyrant Arab secret police agents. Some work with the US army and want to learn it to deal with Arabs in occupied areas such as Iraq. Others are Middle East university stream students and want to learn it as it is part of their studies. and there are others who are not Muslims and who just want to learn it because they are fascinated with Arabic and the Arab world.

Whatever was the reason, Arabic Coach provides the platform to connect anyone who wants to learn Arabic from around the world with native Arab teachers from the Arab world.

The site offers those who want to study Arabic the option to browse teachers see their profile, video intro and ratting, then they can schedule virtual teaching sessions with the desired teachers, conducted via Skype or Yahoo messenger.

Each teacher can determine his own hourly rate. in which the student has to pay, Arabic Coach takes 20% fee from each teacher. Teachers are provided with a suggested curriculum, lesson plans, and assessment tools, but they have the freedom to use their own methods. All teachers go through a screening session before their profile goes live.

Syrian animation startup OX Animation has launched Anmish, a do-it-your-self video animation creation.

On Anmish users can choose from various ready-made collection of caricatures of famous figures in the world to create animations. After choosing the caricature you can record a voice over and play with the different emotions for the character such as close up shot, medium shot, full shot, Happy, sad and any, hit save and your done.

Here is an animation for Hillary Clinton I created and one for Gaddafi. It would be helpful if OX Animation add embed option to the videos.

iWasinTahrir.com is an initiative designed to allow visitors who witnessed Egypt’s uprising against the Mubarak regime, to leave their mark in history; Something like a virtual online “Million Man March”.

It’s a place where all Egyptian revolutionaries can leave their mark in a more personal manner, and to share their experiences with the whole world and future generations to come. It also has a digital memorial – Martyrs Flag – for all Egyptian Martyrs – we consider them as such and God is the decider- who died while freeing their country, Egypt.

The web site displays a view of Tahrir Square in Cairo which was the center of the revolution that freed egypt from a dictator, all you have to do is point at one of the flags and upload you pic and add your mark. You can also search for users based email or name. By clicking on each flag you get the names of people who were there or signed up their mark, click on the name to view their mark to history and to see their pic.

The site is a creation of 2 egyptian companies PULSE and ICON CREATIONS production.

“What do you wish for?” Hany Rashwan, a 20-year-old Egyptian studying Computer Science at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, recently launched Kolena.org to allow users in post-revolution Egypt to discuss their answers to this question. Rashwan envisions Kolena, a word that means “all of us” in Arabic, as “Egypt’s online interactive Town Hall Meeting…a place for people to go to submit and vote on ideas for change.”

The importance of social media in the recent Egyptian Revolution has been a subject of debate, yet Rashwan’s project looks to position online activism at the center of Egypt’s ongoing reform process. After its first week, Kolena has attracted over forty reform proposals, distributed across categories such as Foreign Affairs, Religious Affairs, Justice, and Economic Development.

Kolena users have the ability to submit ideas for reform via their Facebook profiles, as well as respond to the ideas of others by voting them up or down in terms of importance. “Better Public Schools” currently ranks at the top of its composite list.

One challenge faced by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook is the difficult task of organizing user-generated information. Individuals have trouble rallying around specific reform projects in such an environment, however Kolena’s ranking system has the potential to foster organized and democratic political action. The site’s staff also filters posts in order to address spam and duplicates.

Until now, users on Kolena have focused on goals such as “Better Public Schools” rather than the tangible steps necessary to achieve them. This initial dialogue is an important part of any reform process and it will be interesting to see if the site evolves to directly impact political discourse in Egypt in the future. For now, Kolena.org is an idea-gatherer rather than an idea-generator. Will the Arab world take advantage of this new platform?

Rashwan was reached via email and expressed interest in expanding his site to other Arab countries.

If you worked in recruitment before you know the amount of time and pain you put to find the right candidates. Current Job boards like Bayt, Akhtaboot and Monster are all out dated.

The painful hiring process with these platform works either by posting a job vacancy and wait for candidates to apply or search the database of CVs. And Oh Boy that process eats lots of your time and is not organized.

BasharJobs comes to re-engineer that process, making it much easier and less time consuming for the both sides, recruiters and job seekers.

On BasharJobs candidates create what Basharjobs call Talent Profiles (TPs) instead of uploading their CVs ( they can export their Linkedin Profile). TPs are more structured and visual than CVs making them easier to read and easier to use for matching with jobs. Intelligent matching algorithms then match TPs with jobs from employers , producing in real time job recommendations for job seekers and candidate recommendations for employers. Thus both job seekers and employers no longer need to search for each other.

According to Muhammad A. Algarhy Basharsoft founder and CEO, Matching is based on 30 dimensions from both sides and they have different weights, for example, marketing title has higher wight, 5 years experience in marketing has higher weight.

Basharjob Business model is different than other job boards, instead of buying CVs to view or a slot to post a job, recruiters can post a job for free view profiles that match the job, but only pay to get the contacts of these profiles.

The system has also other nice features for recruiters to help them get the right candidates, each profile has a tag cloud, which are collections of keywords from users profile that help recruiters to get a better idea about the person, job seekers can add a 3 to5 minutes video about themselves. They can also tag each profile as short listed or rejected, rate applicants, commenting on profile for internal use and job seekers can see their application status, and the probability to win this job.

BasharJobs is developed by Basharsoft which is incubated at Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC ) in smart village, Cairo, Egypt, The startup won the business plan the incubator runs every year and is funded via a grant of 170,000 USD.

I met with Basharsoft CEO Muhammad A. Algarhy when I visited Egypt in December he told us that they plan to release psychometric assessment integration. Basharsoft also has Spring Talent Management a job board engine used to develop custom job boards for niche segments and industries. and WiseRec is an online careers section for SMEs sold on a SaaS model with features to collect and screen applications.




Want to tweet a long email with attachments? want to share your email on Twitter? Twitemail helps you do that in very easy way: just send your email to your assigned Twitemail address and your email will be shared in your Twitter feed.

To start using Twitemail signup with your twitter handle get your Twitmail address and your done.

Here is our test:

If you want the other way around, which is sending your tweets to email addresses look for Tweet To Email covered last March here.

Twitemail is founded by Saleh Al Zaid, Saudi serial entrepreneur and former ArabCrunch Saudi Ambasador  his other projects are: untiny: uniting short URLs and twtbase: twitter app database.

ContactCars.com a car listing and buying portal in Egypt has launched its Arabic iPhone app offering users the latest car prices in the Egyptian market.

The app features tens of car models complete with photos and specifications. A long with a loan calculator which allows you to calculate the monthly installment for the car of your choice though Contact Company.

ConactCars is a partnership between Vodafone Egypt owned company Sarmaddy and car insurance & funding company in Egypt Contact. The sites offers listing of new and old car molds in egypt along with prices and specs, car funding and insurance applications, automative news, and car video and photo sharing.

There is no doubt that open source movement is taking over the world, 72% web sites run on open source server Apache, wordpress the open source blogging platform based on PHP/MYSQL is the #1 blogging platform in the world. Major sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google on open source software such as PHP, Python, Ruby and Java.

FOSS stands for Free and open source software software that is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code.

Ontario, Canada based FOSS Factory comes to help accelerate open source and FOSS development by providing a social platform for people to collaborate on design, funding, and development of new open source software.

The open source development community site helps anyone who wants get a certain software or plugg-in to be developed as an open source to post their ideas or sponsor a project/s with a certain amount of money while helping open source developers earn Cash for the open source work they do.

FOSSFactory  lists current open source projects that users added, each project has its requirements, bugs/Subprojects where developers can report bugs that can be marked completed after solving them, Sponsors a table of the current project sponsors and how much they are welling to pay. Activity: a timeline with what is happing to the project, Submissions:  where developers and designers can submit solutions.

The project view also displays current project lead, bounty, funding goal, related projects, and offers users to create subprojects, file a complaint, report a bug. And each project has a Git Repository. Users can vote projects up and “watch them” this adds them to  ”My Projects” section of the users personal workplace on FoSSFactory called “My Factory.”

My Factory includes, the users duties, his projects submitted or followed, setting and the ability to add monthly sponsorship.

Here how it works how FOSSFACTORY works:

• Submit an idea or project:

You can submit an idea and project, specify its functional requirements and if you want you can sponsor it by offering cash bounty in return for its development. Each project can also be divided into smaller projects sub-projects with their own own requirement. This helps make the project managed by smaller tasks, anyone can submit subprojects and they can be any of type: function, class, module, library, or even a completely separate executable program.

• Each project has a “project lead”:

The user who is responsible for keeping the project moving. his/her responsibilities include accepting/ rejecting requirements changes, review submissions and decide if they satisfy all project requirements. By default the project creator is the project lead, if that position is left vacant, any of the site members can become that person. perorate goes to members who hold the largest number of project credits.

• Sponsorship:

You can sponsor your project or any project, by using funds in your “reserver” a virtual currency that you can transfer money using PayPal. With Each dollar you contribute you get one credit, which helps you use inorder to become a project lead or to transfer credits to other members to help them become project leads of other projects. Our suggestion is that developers should get also credits for submitting complete projects. As they can also be good project leads.

• Payments:

In order for a developer to win the project allocated funds he/she must be the first person to provide a complete solution to the project as a single submission. The submission must satisfy all of the project requirements at the time of submission.

But there is a”cool-off period” between the submission approval and the actual payment this could be between 24 hours to 2 weeks. The purpose of this delay is to give community members a chance to assess whether the project lead has made a mistake, or even acted in bad faith. During this interval, members can file a complaint if they believe there is a problem.

As for completing a subproject, When a subproject is solved, the solver is paid the sum of any funds contributed directly to that subproject, plus its share of its parent project’s funds

FOSSFactory implemented several methods to help solve disputes in case they arise between project submissions and its approvals/dispoovales and that can be found here.

The site makes money from deducting a certain percentage from the transaction fees from all bounty payments, also a community deduction is a must whenever a project is successfully completed, as a certain % will be distributed among the top ten featured projects, or can be sent one of several open source charitable organizations.

At ArabCrunch we are big fans of open source, we would not be able to be here without it. So kudos to FOSSFactory, however we would suggest a better visual display with arrows of how the open source community development works and if it is possible to make  the process less complex.

FOSSFactory is founded by John-Paul Gignac, and Abdullah Bakhach, the startup lead investor is Steve Sutherland. The site source code is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License and can be found here.

You can follow FOSSFACTORY on arabcrunch.net here.

If you are not familiar with AdobeAir it is a cross platform runtime environment developed by adobe for building and running rich Internet applications using Adobe flash, Flex, HTMl and Ajax and can run as desktop applications.

The platform fame started with debut of Twitter desktop app such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic, both allow you to manage your Twitter account/s, lists search and so on from one place on your desktop.

There are also many other desktop app that are based on Adobe Air, and there is where AdobeAir.Me from Egypt comes to aid, as it lists a directory of many adobe air applications in one place offering you the option to find them under different categories such as social networking, RSS readers, Design and so on.

The site design is appealing, but we do not know if they will be able to attract enough visits to monitaize from ads.

At a personal level I do not like Adobe Air desktop apps because they consume lots of resources, CPU and RAM, so that site might not be useful for me.

AdobeAir.me is founded by Hosam Adel from Egypt.

<!–a19f861c30064643965154a801cc0730–>

Update: this site might be of a security risk, the site marketing personnel refused to provide us with his full  name or send us more details related  to security.

They finally responded and here is the update:

Update 2:

We got this response from Dushare marketing team:

How do you close the connection?
1. The connection is closed as soon as the second peer refreshes his page after recieving file or closing the browser page.

if the link is there in the cloud? how would we know that the user PC is not wide open to you guys or anyone?

He is not open, we have implemented a 128-bit encryption algorith on the transferred packets.

Another thing, the link can only be picked by one peer, no one else can coonect to it. You can also password-protect your files. And ones the sender leaves our page or doesn’t send another thing. All connections are closed.

Let me explain in details:

1. You pick a file, it gets prepped up and url is produced for you to send it to your friend/other peer.
2. The file link is clicked on directly, http://www.dushare.com#45130 or can be retrieved by entering the code “45130″ in the “claim” part.
3. upto to the point the url is produced, no security risk or any ports or sockets are sockets are exposed.
4. When the other peer, click on the url link and connect to you. The data packets are encrypted using a 128-bit AES encryption. This encryption is required for any tampering of data  by a middle man other than the receiving
peer.
5.We expose no ports or sockets. Once the other peer picks up the file, no one else can pick up the file and url link is useless. You can even password-protect your files.

The above explains the security part.

As for the connection,

You(sender) identify yourself with an id on the main server with your IP, then when the other peers picks the file, he has an ID, and IP, The actual data packets are transferred directly between ID 234 to ID 434 securely.

We have no control and we cannot intercept the file transfer as its transferred directly from peer 1 to peer2. Even in the case, the data is tampered by a man in the middle. It is encrypted using a 128-bit AES encryption.

I hope that clarifies your security concerns.

Another addition, The url link cannot be picked by more than 1 peer. You can also password protect your files.

Update 3:

From dushare team: “With p2p technology you don’t have access of anytype to the peers pc. It’s simply sending and recieving data packets and decoding them.”

There are different ways to share files with peers, coworkers and friends using tools such as torrents and ex- Google MENA Marketing Manager Nagi Salloum‘s Loomn.it

Dushare brings the concept of P2P (peer 2 peer) to the web and for free, no registration,  just hit upload any file of any-size and then share the key with your friend, he/she can join the link to chat with you while getting the file.

Dushare claims that it does not see your files or chat logs as they rely on secure direct transferee connection between the 2 peers. Dushare also offers the option to protect your files with a password.

Dushare is a product of DuLeaf FZE a United Arab Emirates’s Dubai Silicon Oasis based company. We do not know what is the startup model but we have replied to their coverage request and will let you know if they answer.

On the file sharing front, Infinite USB Memory Drive (IUM) also from Dubai provides unlimited file transfer between devices using WIFI.

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.

While Aqara Estate a Jordanian startup founded by ex-Jeeran female employee Hanan Khader offers real estate agents in the Arab world and sellers the ability to list land, buildings or apartments for sales or rent. Aqaramap a Yamni startup that was launched last April came with emphasis on location by pin pointing the real estate address to the map.

MLS MENA an Egyptian startup that said will launch its alpha version next September wants to take the whole real estate market several steps ahead. Addressing that there is no standard integrated listing system similar to the MLS in USA and other developed markets.

The startup will work with governments and real estate companies to get the public records and use that data on its website :

The exact size of the property lots and the ownership, and the real historic sale prices. Plus offering user the ability to compare the estate to similar properties that got sold in the region recently.

MLS MENA promise also to bring relevant points of interest data that will be acquired from third parties, and historic trends that buyers and sellers can collect, sort, and analyze. Thus helping users make more informative decision before buying or renting.

“Users can buy/rent a property by searching our website and connecting with the agent or owner directly. We are just a marketplace for them to meet. ” Eng. Yusuf Shahen founder of MLS MENA told AC.

As per business model it will be freemium “we allow users to add listings for free, but they can add featured listings a for a premium price.” Yusuf added.

According to him MLS MENA has started a pilot program with the Cairo Agency for Properties. A prototype (alpha version) to be launched by September and public beta launch by the beginning of 2011.

The startup is seeking angel and VC investors.

There are no shortage in location based services, the leader is foursquare followed by Gowalla, But Face2face takes another approach.

After you download the app in your mobile device (iPhone, Android or BlackBerry) you do not need a to signup with a new user name, use your existing Facebook, linked, Twitter or Myspace accounts to connect and use the app.

What’s more the app allows you to aggregate your Twitter, Facebook linkedin and Myspace accounts feed in one place and comment on your friends social feed. And when your friends are near by you can chat with them or call them to meet.

What face2face pride its self with is privacy, your friends will know you are near by but not the exact location, face2face calls that ” proximity-based and social technology”. And unlike foursquare and gowalla you do not need to check-in anywhere, your location is updated in the background.

Another interesting feature that Face2face provides is the ability to find “Friends of Friends”  which I think this makes it easier for anyone to meet and network with new people who you have common friends with.

Face2face is available in iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and J2ME coming soon. I’ve tested it briefly using my friend’s Nexsus One Mobile (Android based mobile from google).

face2face is founded by Proximate Global a US/Pakistani startup. If you have an iPhone or an Android app, You can lets us know what you think of the app.

#Thanks Startupmeme for the tip.

UAE based startup Infinitec announced its Infinite USB Memory (IUM) Drive on March 2010, saying at the time that they will launch on July First. Though the startup has sent us a press release with their new and final date, of August 31st 2010 .

The interesting Infinite USB Memory (IUM) is a small USB like device that allows users to share “infinite amount of data” as we wrote on March:

“instead of storing data inside the stick it uses any thing that has a USB port as the storage space, enabling “infinite” data sharing ( videos, photos, doc..etc) using WIFI network meaning the device act as wireless connector between a personal computer and anything that is USB-enabled.”

Infinitc said that the delay in shipping of the wireless device is due to industry lead time issues in sourcing components and microchips.

In addition, the company also announced that the IUM has been re-designed to becoming more smaller. it will sell at $129 .

The startup said that customers who pre-order before the August 1st shipping date will receive free shipping to any destination around the world. this can be done via Infinitec website.

Infinitec is founded by 2 ex-Nokia coworkers from Palestine: Ahmad Zaharan CEO and David McKern CMO from Australia. Infinitic profile on ArabCrunch.NET can be found here.

#Hardware design and Software development by Arab Geeks in Jordan.

Germany based language portal bab.la launched its Arabic version today. bab.la has free dictionaries for 28 languages, where users can use via the web and mobile but what is more interesting you can get any word translated by sending a tweet to @babladict.

To do that just enter the language abbreviation ( ex: En) space the abbreviation of the other langauge you want to have the world translated to ( ex: Ar, Fr, Gr ) then the word that you want it to be translated and hit send, in a few babladict will @ you with the translated word.

bab.la Twitter account says its supports 14 languages, I tested English to Arabic, French and German.

bab.la website seems also to offer more accurate English to Arabic translation than google translate
example the world startup goolge translated it into “بدء التشغيل” which means start running, while bab.la translation offered 2 Arabic words : البدء في التشغيل، ابتدائيّ the second one is the same as google but the first “new” or “initial” which is some how related to what the word startup means (I could not test german or french since I do not speak them). bab.la also offers Similar terms for the translated word in both Arabic and English. ( Bab.la failed to translate innovate to Arabic via its Twitter Interface)

Additionally on bab.la users can submit their own suggested translations. ”This is just the beginning as our portal is wiki-based. Users can suggest their own translations or complete existing translations” explains Egyptian Susan Karmal, project manager of the Arabic version.

The site also offers other services such as teaching materials games and professional translations service.

Arabic English dictionary, translation and learning is nothing new, Google has Gtalk bot Sakhr has  web dictionary, iPhone app real time Arabic to english translator, Yahoo Maktoob iPhone app,  and Arabic Pod has interesting Arabic learning podcatst, with videos and other things that are added since our last review about them.

Ras2ras.com, a social rating platform from Yemen was acquired by an investor from Qatar for an undisclosed amount. Ras2ras.com, which was founded by Amad Almsaodi in 2008, is built around a very simple yet really interesting idea: putting any two comparable things against each other, and letting people vote on which they like best.

In a  press release sent to ArabCrunch the Investor, Ahmad Alaji, said: “We see huge opportunities in what Ras2ras.com offers; it’s innovative, unique, and it adds value to the consumers. We were first interested in using the platform for advertising, and as we learned more about the technology and the company operations we saw a very interesting opportunity and lots of room for growth and profit.”

Amad Almsaodi who spoke on ArabCrunchStart event in Seattle in Washington, USA  said, “We are excited about the new possibilities that are awaiting Ras2ras.com. Our team is currently focused on AqarMap.com: An Innovative Real Estate Marketplace for the Middle East; so the timing of this acquisition was perfect for both parties.”

Congrats Amad

Want to edit a video for your family or for your coworkers or create a stunning presentation Faculte helps you do that online with no need to install a software.

Faculte which is another sign of the growing SaaS sector, allows you to publish video clips,images, videos, power-points, documents and audio or arrange them into a multi-chapter videos or slide shows offering a more interactive experience. The site also offers ways to distribute the content via widgets or embedded player.

To do so Faclute web-based studio comes to aid, it allows you can record on-demand presentation, create a picture slide show, publish videos clips in a multi- chapter video, create multi media presentations, demo or tutorials
The Studio has very interesting features and is simple to use, some of the nice features it has recoding via a web cam and mic, grapping photos and video from the web on the fly and adding your own files from your PC ( in my case Mac).

For starter Faculte studio is free but add features requires payments starting at 25$ a month. The service is great for trainer, educator, marketers, sales people, I suggest that they have some sort partnership with knowledge training startup loomin.com and slideshare.

The basic services of the web app offered for free, Professional package which has more feats cost 25$ a month, as for Enterprise the site does not specify how much the cost is.
Faculate is based in SF bay Area in California, its founders are Maher Hakim – Co-Founder and CEO orginally fronm Syria and Mark Valentine – Co-Founder and COO.

Here an embed of a test presentation I made:




Former regional marketing manager for Google in MENA Nagi Salloum who launched yesterday dead simple sharing tool loomn.it is launching today his new startup loomni.

Lo0mni is trying to solve the problem of education and knowledge. As after university most people tend not to learn and take new courses as most traning courses are geared towards executive and sneior managment due to the expensive rates they are offered at (1000+ USD.)

Loomin is able to offer affordable cousres at the rate of 50$ with a new conecpt to attract instructors: “marketing by teaching”:

“here experts can share their knowledge, educate people about topics they are expert in, and with extensive practical experience. ex: as a social media company, market your services by teaching people about social media stuff. If they are interested and understand the benefits of social media they will contact you for professional advice and services. Instructors are incentivized to deliver high quality course as the delivery will impact their reputation in the market. “ Said Nagi

Nagi is also introducing Loomni vouchers, prepaid codes charged with a certain monetary value (typically 200 AED, avg price of a course). This allows businesses to provide the Loomni courses to their staff by purchasing these vouchers and distributing them to their employees. Employees would then book courses on Loomni without any cash transaction.

“With this, companies can now fund education as part of their corporate social responsibility in a new way, by purchasing Loomni vouchers and distributing them to non-profits to educate disadvantaged people, Government can now easily support the Emiratis continuous education by providing them with Loomni vouchers.” Nagi added.

Quick Questions and Answers:

The elevator pitch in 140-characters?

Loomni is a knowledge sharing platform organizing a variety of short,attractive,in-venue courses, delivered by experts at unbeatable prices.

• Who is the target audience?

Loomni is aimed at university students, small and medium businesses and general audience. The website has been designed with a very user friendly and simple interface, creating a fun and nice branding.

• What is the story behind choosing “Loomni” as your start-up’s name?

Loomni is a blend between illumination (illuminate people’s minds) and alumni (I used to pronounce it Alumnee). i wanted a simple fun easy to spell/pronounce word, and available as a domain name

• What is the monetization model ?

the business is designed on a revenue share model between Loomni and the instructors, share varies based on course, instructor, frequency of course, audience…

• why you decided to leave Google?

Prior to moving to Dubai as the regional marketing manager in Google, I worked in Procter & Gamble, as a regional brand manager for Near East markets, based out of Beirut, Lebanon but decided to quit Procter & Gamble in 2008 to launch a start-up aimed at fixing the scattered private tutoring market. Only few months after launch, due to harsh political instabilities in Beirut, I decided to leave Lebanon and settle in Dubai, which offers a solid infrastructure for businesses to prosper. I took the time while at Google to fine the business model I had launched, and when the time was ready, decided to relaunch it in Dubai. So in short, yes, these 2 situations are related

#Loomni at ArabCrunch.NET.