http://www.wamda.com/ Wamda: inspiring, empowering and connecting entrepreneurs Mix N' Mentor coming to Amman, 3rd time this year!

Only one day left before Mix N' Mentor Amman! This will be our third Mix N' Mentor event in less than a year in the country, and we're thrilled! This time, we're switching up the schedule of the event by adding two new components: the Lean Startup workshop with Tech Pioneer Calvin Chin, and our Wamda 4 Women Roundtables. Make sure to tune in to live.wamda.com as we'll be broadcasting opening remarks and fireside chat live!
Upcoming Events

24 May - Startup Weekend Agadir
26 May - Bayt Virtual Job Fair
27 May - 8th Startup Q8: Multi-sided platforms
29 May - 4th Global Islamic Marketing Conference - Istanbul
29 May - Startup Weekend Sanaa
30 May - Mix N' Mentor Riyadh and Wamda for Women Entrepreneurs roundtables - Riyadh

Make sure to check wamda.com/events, or follow @WamdaME on Twitter to stay updated about more events! 
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MAKE Business Hub is acquired by CeeCee Holding. Here's what Dubai's entrepreneurs have to say about it

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These 3 startups failed in Jordan and they're loud of it. Here are their 5 honest tips.

"If you have to fail, fail fast, small, and make a lesson out of it" is a piece of advice often heard in the entrepreneurial world. Find out what the entrepreneurs behind TakTek Games, Wizards Productions and Wheels Express have to share about their experience of failing. Don't miss these great lessons!]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/weekly-wrap-up-may-19-23Thu, 23 May 2013 15:07:50 +0000 “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write; but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn,” said writer Alvin Toffler. Are you committed to lifelong learning? Here Bayt.com offers a few tips for getting on the journey towards building new skills and interests that may even help you in the workplace:
1. Read tons of books related to your career.
77.9% of respondents to a Bayt.com poll indicated they read constantly and 69.6% indicated they believe reading is vital to career progress. Dive in to some business classics or titles very specific to your chosen field; consult book reviews and industry journals and always aim to stay ahead of the curve in your career reading.
2. Develop new interests in non-job related areas.
You may be surprised at the value you can derive from being well-rounded or becoming an expert in something you are passionate about, even if it seems unrelated to your career. Many skills are transferable; you’re likely to find some way to incorporate this learning into your job at some point. Take up a new language, or even cooking lessons. Even if you can’t apply it to your work, following new interests will help you become a much more passionate, and interesting, professional.
3. Write about what you learn, or at least take notes and jot down ideas.
Share your learning through a blog or by writing articles or summary notes if you feel comfortable.  If you’re not comfortable sharing, keep notes for yourself. Active reading involves jotting ideas, taking notes and a higher level of participation; plus these notes and ideas may come in very handy later on.
4. Take new courses and attend lectures/seminars/conferences whenever you can.
Sometimes it’s great to get out and listen to an expert’s perspective and join in stimulating classroom discourse or debate. If you can’t physically attend courses, you could even try an online courses. A recent Bayt.com online education poll showed that 39.3% professionals in the Arab world say they would consider pursuing an online course if given a chance.
5. Join online and offline groups related to your interests.
By joining a group you will fuel your interests, challenge and reinforce your learning, and have the opportunity to ask questions and test answers. It can be a general book club you join or a group specific to your area of interest, like an Engineering Society, sewing circle, stargazers club, accounting forum, etc. Whatever kind of group you choose, this is a great way to supplement your learning.
6. Teach someone.
Teaching is often the best way to learn; we learn from our students’ burning questions and from preparing to deliver lessons. If you don’t have a student or mentee, perhaps you can organize a sort of learning circle for people with similar interests who rotate teaching on different topics each week.
7. Always ask questions.
Don’t just be a passive learner, push yourself to ask and answer questions; participate in discussions and aim to understand best practices. Always strive to learn more, push concepts and assumptions, and take advantage of experts and tools around you by pulling all of the knowledge you can out of them.
8. Don’t be shy to implement, practice and experiment with your learning.
Don’t be afraid to try out you’re a new technique or skillset in public; next time you’re at a French or Chinese restaurant downtown, don’t hesitate to place the order with your newly learned French or Chinese skills. Practice will make yours skills more useful and may help you find ways to integrate new learning into the workplace.
9. Find a mentor in your field of interest.
A coach can be an invaluable resource and a sounding board for new ideas or questions you may have in your field. Pick someone who has sufficient quality time for you, who shares your interests, and whose opinions and ideas you really respect and value. Pick their brain and get as much knowledge and expertise from them as you can.
10. Set milestones along the journey.
Learning is a lifelong journey. To make the adventure more meaningful, test your new skills and tie success to rewards. Whether you choose to take a holiday in a place that speaks the new language you’re learning or implement a new project or process at work that uses a new skillset, make sure you are regularly assessing your newfound knowledge and always keep learning.
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Bayt.com is a job site in the Middle East with more than 40,000 employers and over 11.7 million registered jobseekers from across the Middle East, North Africa and the globe, representing all industries and career levels. You can post a job or find jobs on Bayt.com to access a major resource for jobseekers and employers in the region.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/10-ways-to-be-a-lifelong-learner-and-make-it-count-at-your-jobThu, 23 May 2013 11:20:58 +0000 But how can one sell video ads in a country like Tunisia where only 39.1% of the population have access to the Internet and only 4.7% of the population has a smartphone?
Himilco seems to have found a way. Three years ago, this Tunisian startup launched MobiSpot, a video platform that operates over SMS and MMS, initially bypassing smartphone use altogether. Here’s how it works. 
A mobile video platform available on and offline
Tunisian mobile users subscribe to Mobispot to receive short, simple, 30-second long videos, several times a month. The service offers a range, from news to instructional videos about health and cooking, to humor, as well as ads.
First, the users can subscribe for free to the service via SMS and choose what kind of videos they want to receive (and whether they prefer French or Arabic), and how often they want to receive them. Depending on the number of videos they opt for, they will also receive up to two ad videos a month.  
The videos are then sent over MMS. When Mobispot first launched three years ago, that was the only option, and the service has stayed the same until now. There's not even a single mention of the service on the Internet. 
Things are (slowly) changing – now that smartphones account for 0.6 million of the 12.8 million Tunisian cellphone plans, Mobispot plans on launching a smartphone app. Two websites will also be launched, one enabling the users to subscribe and select videos, the other one allowing the advertisers to manage their campaigns.
Mobispot is also planning on going increasingly social. For now, users can share videos directly with their friends, which is on the rise in Tunisia; from 2010 to 2011, the number of uploads on YouTube has increased by 420%. Soon, Mobispot will also begin broadcasting user-generated video to its userbase.
An early stage market
In a market dominated by advertisement over SMS only, the fact that Mobispot offers pre-accepted multimedia advertisement makes it unique. Advertisers can target users depending on their age, gender, location, education, or interests as well as social context, spending behavior, and mobile behavior.
To date, the service has mostly grown in Tunisia thanks to a partnership with local company Tunisie Telecom; all of Mobispot's 3.8 million users are part of Tunisie Telecom's pool of 4.5 million users, who represent 40% of the population. who watched 6 million ad videos until December 2012. 
Now, however, Himilco is raising funds to expand to the rest of the Arab world, planning to create country-specific content, in partnership with local telecoms. If the service brings its MMS service to other countries with low smartphone penetration, it could tackle new markets with relatively low competition. The question remains: could MobiSpot garner the same success in countries with better smartphone penetration and a population more accustomed to online video? 
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Aline is French Editor at Wamda. After having worked as the Online Marketing and Community Manager at French startup Buzzcar, she moved to the Middle East. She writes about traveling and culture in the Middle East on her blog Yallabye.eu. You can follow her on Twitter  @aline_mydand @yallah_bye, connect with her on LinkedIn, or reach her at aline[at]wamda[dot]com.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/morocco-s-mobispot-serves-up-video-advertising-to-users-without-smartphonesThu, 23 May 2013 09:10:00 +0000 “It's pretty much the University Cafe or Coopa Cafe of Dubai,” says David Haddad, founder of Press Pass, referring to two beloved investor and entrepreneur haunts in Palo Alto, California. At MAKE, people, well, make things, he says: “Startups are launched, collaborations are started, feedback is solicited, information is exchanged, news is discussed, and things are created.”
Yet in the past year, MAKE has become far more than a café where deals are made and broken; it’s also become an entrepreneurship education hub. With its MAKE Ignition series, the co-working space put Dubai’s tech founders on display in pitch events, even bridging worlds by hosting Silicon Valley incubator 500Startups for an evening. And with its Founders Dinners and Startup Grind series, the space brought founders from Astrolabs, Duplays, and JadoPado out to share their advice with fellow entrepreneurs. The space was led by Leith Matthews, an entrepreneur originally from Australia, who came to Dubai with a passion for food and beverage businesses. Only when he began brainstorming startup ideas in cafés did he realize that the coffeeshops themselves were sorely underserving entrepreneurs and creatives. In 2010, he decided to quit his job and launched MAKE in the Jumeirah Beach Residence area of Dubai the next year. Now, two years after its launch, the company has reached a destination that most startup founders dream of: it’s been acquired. “CeeCee Holding has acquired my equity in the business, and I will be passing over management and leadership of the business to them in the coming weeks,” Matthews wrote in an official announcement.  Matthews has been elusive since the time of the announcement; we haven’t been able to get through to him for a comment. But we have assumed he’ll be continuing to run Restronaut, his new venture that unites foodies and founders to talk shop over cozy meals in Dubai.  Dubai's entrepreneurs weigh in On the whole, the Dubai entrepreneurs we spoke to said they would miss Matthews’s touch at MAKE, but that it was a positive moment for Dubai and spoke to his hard work. “I think Leith's story is a testament to how a solid concept and top-notch execution make for a success story,” said Rabih Brair of tandem, an SME support consultancy based in Dubai. “Any transaction is good for the ecosystem, but this is perhaps even more relevant because it catered to the budding entrepreneurs of Dubai.”
“Leith will keep creating outstanding businesses; it’s clear that he is an ambitious and creative person,” said LouLou Khazen of Nabbesh, an online skills exchange community. “He already built MAKE on strong fundamentals of great service, hip ambiance, unique events and not to forget the great food! Now that he ‘made it happen,’ it's time for him to build something else in a true entrepreneurial spirit.” Her colleague at Nabbesh, Alex Tohme, will miss the dose of warmth in a transient city. “Many people felt they had a personal connection with the venue because of Leith and his attention to the regulars, which is unique in a city like Dubai: in many places you feel like just another customer. He's an inspiration and will be missed.” It’s a unique story, agrees, Haddad, whose startup, Press Pass, helps businesses and individuals pitch stories to journalists.  “In a very short time, Leith was able to create a brand that is pretty much unmatched in the UAE when it comes to entrepreneurship and creativity,” he said.
“A few years from now, if you were to look at some of the success stories and ask their founders were they were when they were starting you would hear many of them uttering a four letter word that starts with the letter M.”
When it comes to the acquisition, says Haddad, there’s an up and downside. “There's such a strong association between Leith and Make that everyone is uncertain what will happen with Leith out of the picture. However, on the upside, he did such a great job with branding and operating the business that with its current inertia the new owners would have to screw up in a major way to change the fate of the company.” The current team clearly already has their nose to the grindstone handling the transition. “We are concentrating 100% on bringing the new management up to speed and possibly closing down for some refurbishments,” said Tai Sariban. 
We know you all love MAKE, but if they’re going under construction, what's on your wish list?
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Nina [nine-uh] is the Editor-in-Chief at Wamda. You can reach her through Wamda, on Twitter @9aa, onFacebook, Google+ or at nina [AT] wamda.com. 
 ]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/make-business-hub-was-acquired-by-ceecee-holdingThu, 23 May 2013 07:10:00 +0000 Social life in Saudi Arabia revolves around the concept of 'majlis' or 'diwanya': a casual meeting area in which friends meet to chat, play cards, or watch soccer games and movies. More often than not, these meetings involve food, more specifically people bringing their own after stopping at several restaurants to pick up what their friends are hungry for.
Ebrahim Al-Jassim, a young Saudi entrepreneur with a background in management and finance, is trying to tackle this problem through his new startup HungerStation.com, an online platform where customers can order what they want, from wherever they want, and get it delivered right to their doorstep.
Hunger Station employs geolocation technology to rank restaurants for hungry customers based on their distance from each restaurant, eliminating the problem of knowing what is really available at certain times. The website also provides the option of ordering from various establishments at once and getting food delivered at the same time, though HungerStation doesn’t deliver the food themselves.
The service is available on the web and via smartphone and provides choices from typical fast food restaurants to higher-end restaurants. Ever since their launch in November 2012, Hunger Station has seen a 500% increase in daily traffic and has now successfully expanded to the Bahraini market. In the past few months, the success of Hunger Station enabled Al-Jassim to sign on new restaurant chains such as Yum Yum Tree, Johnny Rockets, and Quiznos. 
We recently chatted with Al-Jassim about his journey and discussed how he came up with the idea, who their major competitors are, their current team structure, major challenges he’s faced, and his views on e-commerce in Saudi Arabia. 
Check out our conversation in the short video above.
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Ahmed Al Majid is a graduate of McGill University with a degree in engineering and management. He is interested in collaborative consumption and the application of gamification elements to increase user/costumer engagement in social entrepreneurship projects. Currently he works as a project engineer with Saudi Aramco at the Kesytone Center, an idea translation lab being built inside the anticipated King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He is also the co-founder of the upcoming mobile app KareSpot, a mobile network that aims to connect volunteers with volunteering opportunities in MENA. You can follow him on twitter @ahmed_oo.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/a-chat-with-hungerstation-an-online-delivery-platform-in-saudi-arabia-wamda-tvThu, 23 May 2013 05:10:00 +0000 At this month’s event, attendees will discuss what the organizers call multi-sided platforms. It sounds kind of technical, but it means “economic platforms having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits.” Not much help; if a company has two distinct customer bases, and creates value by enabling them to interact, then it’s a multi-sided platform. For example, Facebook had to cater to users and advertisers, while Ebay had its buyers and sellers. It gets interesting when you consider how these companies have to grow one user base to attract the other.
Presentations will include an intro to the topic by Mijbel AlQattan, and an interview with Sayed Almohri of Next Mobile Payment.
The event is free to attend, and is open to all interested in learning more about entrepreneurship and the startup ecosystem in Kuwait.
Click here to RSVP, and check out the schedule here. To learn about future events and announcements, you can follow Startup Q8 on Twitter.
Check out last month’s event recap on Wamda here.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/7th-startup-q8-multi-sided-platformsWed, 22 May 2013 11:33:00 +0000 1. Presella 
We recently covered Presella, the first platform in the Middle East that combines e-ticketing services with the opportunity to crowdfund your event.
Like Eventbrite, the platform allows event-goers to register and pay online as well as attend simply by showing a QR code on their phone. The difference is that the startup welcomes both established promoters and young event-organizers that haven't yet secured the necessary funds, but can get a boost with its crowdfunding option.
Pluses: The plateform is user-friendly and for some events, users can get cool rewards such as free goodies, discounts and more if they book early on.
Minuses: The website could be more social, but co-founders said it's on the way.
2. Rikbit
In Lebanon, Rikbit is a community-driven event platform that allows users to post group events and invite their friends. The goal, say the founders, is to help individuals organize group activities in Lebanon.
It offers the standard features one would find on Eventbrite, but adds features specific to group activities such as managing the reccurrence of the events, or setting a minimum number of attendees before confirming an event. 
To generate revenue, the site takes a transaction fee from event organizers. Thus far, its most popular events in Lebanon include weekly hikes, paragliding, paintball and beergers (beers and burgers).Pluses: The platform offers a neat, user-friendly interface where you can browse through a large choice of diverse and sometimes unusual events. It also focuses on social media; every event page features the list of participants who’ve already booked, and most have chosen to publicize their Facebook name, picture and profile, making it easy to connect.
Minuses: It's still young, having launched in January after training at Lebanese incubator Seeqnce, and it's clearly a minimum viable product; users can't add events directly; they still have to email Rikbit's team to add an event. Yet the startup plans to add these features and allow merchants to create profiles soon, says co-founder Rawad Hajj. 
3. Sajilni 

In Jordan, Sajilni.com (meaning "sign me up" in Arabic) is an e-ticketing platform, like Presella, where event organizers can sell create events and sell tickets.Unlike Presella, it doesn't offer crowdfunding. But like Eventbrite, it allows users to accept payment, manage attendees, extract reports and send invitations. Founder Hiba Mansour built Sajilni with the help of Jordanian accelerator Oasis500. Like Rikbit, the platform also takes a 5% commission on events, but unlike Rikbit, it's designed only to deal with one-time events.Thus far, its most popular events in Jordan include skydiving and local concerts.
Pluses: The event-organizers can set up personalized page like the one Dum Tak Festival did.Minuses: Not enough events. While the platform launched with a popular skydiving campaign, and has continued to offer yoga workshops, concerts, conferences, and kids activities, it has still seen slow uptake in Jordan, perhaps because the market is small. Yet the team says it will also begin focusing on going regional to overcome this issue.
4. Lebtivity
Lebtivity is the only one of these four that is not a direct  event management site; it's an event aggregator that lists events going on in Lebanon.  Any event organizer or event-goer can add event to its calendar. The platform doesn’t offer online registration or online payment, but it does offer unique features like the ability to bookmark favorite events, receive reminders and synchronize events with an online calendar.
Exactly a year ago today, Randa Farah, Teddy Zeenny, Rana Abou Rjeily, George Zeenny, and Charbel Jamous launched the site because they couldn't find a list of hiking activities. Now, it  features various categories of activities that range from Arts & Culture to Sports & Outdoors. For now, it's a self-funded parttime endeavor for them, but they plan to monetize with ads in the future.
Its most popular events are those organized by venues without websites, the founders say.
Pluses: It's not hard to see why users have flocked to it: it makes it very easy to add events or import events from Facebook. It's also comprehensive; founder Randa Farah claims that the website covers 90% of the events in Lebanon. 
Minuses: The only drawback is that too many events flood the homepage at once. The platform recently added a filter to sort events depending on how popular they are. It's a good start.
This is clearly starting to be a hot market. Other websites are under construction such as ihjoz, a Lebanese web & mobile eticketing platform.
Overall, the advantage of each platform comes down to its local flavor. Global platforms offer the standard features, but those platforms offer intuitive, user-friendly interface that highlight the local scene and how vibrant it is. 
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Aline is French Editor at Wamda. After having worked as the Online Marketing and Community Manager at French startup Buzzcar, she moved to the Middle East. She writes about traveling and culture in the Middle East on her blogYallabye.eu. You can follow her on Twitter  @aline_mydand @yallah_bye, connect with her on LinkedIn, or reach her at aline[at]wamda[dot]com.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/4-startups-that-make-event-management-easier-in-the-levantWed, 22 May 2013 11:31:00 +0000 The event brought together three founders whose awesome failures Wamda has covered- Ibrahim Manaa of Wheels Express, Ghaith Kawar of Taktek Games, and Sohaib Thiab of Wizard Productions- to share their stories of failure with a jam-packed crowd full of Jordanian startup founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors and techies. The discussion was moderated by Jordanian angel investor Maher Kaddoura and, by the end, the panelists left attendees with five key takeaways:
1) Build the right founding team.
“Define responsibilities from day one!” says Thiab. He stressed the importance of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each co-founder to prevent problems down the line, something he admitted to Wamda that Wizards struggled with. Most importantly, he added, “You need to define your vision,” and agree on it among the founding team, while keeping lines of communication open to share any issues or problems, whether big or small, with your partners as soon as they arise.
Perhaps most importantly, both Thiab and Kawar agreed that if you’re running a tech startup, it’s essential to have a technical co-founder with a strong engineering background, rather than hiring developers with no stake in the business who you may not be able to retain; the founding team should cover the major pieces of the startup, from technology to business development
2) Timing is everything; know when to scale and when to bootstrap.
With a proven model in Amman and very little competition, Manaa sought to scale Wheels Express quickly - too quickly. The startup’s expenses escalated much faster than their revenues, and when Manaa wasn’t able to secure their next round of investment, the startup had to close down. While it’s sometimes important to scale quickly to overcome competitors, “you have to make sure your revenues are higher than your expenses even if you have investment money," he says.
Wizards also struggled with scaling. “We didn’t account for scalability from day one,” says Thiab. At first, Wizards tried to keep it small, underestimating the growth potential in their market. When they then wanted to revamp their games to meet growing demand, they were too late to beat out competitors. Thiab recommends scaling as quickly as you can, after receiving some advice and mentorship from experts in your field.
3) Empower your team and build a transparent culture.
With a coveted deal with international publisher Chillingo, Taktek Games was well on its way to success in April 2012. But over the course of time, the startup lost a significant proportion of its talent, who were trained in-house, to higher paying jobs in the Gulf. When TakTek couldn’t deliver on the tweaks to their game that Chillingo asked for, they had to close.
The fundamental problem is that employees aren't valuing startup culture, says Kawar: “They think a startup is like a corporation.” This lack of experience with the ups and downs of running a new venture is one of the key reasons startups fail to retain their employees, he suggests. Yet at Taktek Games he took a hands-on approach to getting employees involved, by sharing his vision with them and also celebrating their successes – as a startup founder, you have to do that, he says.
“Be transparent and open with your staff,” Thiab adds, even when investment is delayed, “if they'll leave [when you're waiting for investment], they’ll leave anyway.”
4) Launch quickly and fail even faster.
After a year and a half of developing massively multiplayer online (MMO) 3D games, Wizards’ technology wasn’t well received by users, so the team decided to pivot to mobile games. However, the lag in production while they learned new skills proved too unsustainable for the company. “We thought we understood our market,” confesses Thiab. He adds that you have to get your product out as fast as you can, even if it’s not fully ready; test your market as quickly as possible and iterate quickly, adopting a lean approach and staying close to the customer. Startups cannot afford to invest heavily in development before testing.
All of the panelists agreed that entrepreneurs should dream big but keep their feet on the ground. Kawar says that, as a startup founder, you shouldn’t aim for 100% innovation all the time. Keep your expectations in check; having 20% innovation and 80% replicated best practices is better for your startup, your expenses, your team and investors, he says. Release your product, test, reiterate and innovate gradually, he advises.
5) Choose investors wisely and involve them.
As an entrepreneur, your relationship with your investors is a “marriage relationship”, Kawar states bluntly. He recommends, that when you approach an investor to be clear from the beginning what you want out of the relationship; funding, mentorship, or both. Every investor offers something different with their funding.
Thiab advises entrepreneurs to be open with their investors and calls on investors to be more involved in their startup portfolio. Both entrepreneurs and investors need to be realistic about their expectations up front and not over promise. 
Kaddoura further adds that, as an investor, he encourages other investors to invest their time in mentorship, especially in the Arab entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The major conclusion from this month’s AmmanTT Fail Edition is that as a startup founder failure is always possible; the key is knowing how to fail fast and small. If you fail big, learn how to dust yourself off and keep going.
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Ola Doudin is the Arabia500 Manager of AllWorld Network managing the first ranking program for the fastest growing companies in MENA. Prior to joining AllWorld, Ola worked in Jordan River Foundation managing an economic empowerment project for women to start income generating and entrepreneurial projects and also worked in the financial sector at Ernst & Young London.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/5-lessons-from-failed-startups-at-amman-tech-tuesdays-fail-editionWed, 22 May 2013 09:10:00 +0000 Enabling consumer accounts means that online shoppers in Egypt will now have the ability to purchase goods from around the world, thanks to PayPal’s payment system. The benefits of using PayPal primarily involve security; it protects consumers from having to share credit card details with vendors, and also allows customers to receive a refund if online retailers don’t deliver goods, or don’t deliver the right goods, explains Elias Ghanem, General Manager of PayPal in the Middle East and North Africa. Expansion into Egypt is a natural next step for the payment company. “PayPal is constantly looking for new and exciting markets to offer its service and Egypt fits this criteria due to its large population, high online penetration and citizens’ love of shopping,” said Ghanem. Those who are interested can learn more at http://www.paypal.com/eg/ahlan.
PayPal also plans to open merchant accounts in Egypt, which would allow online retailers to enable payment via PayPal on their e-commerce stores. While today, PayPal is only live for consumers, this is the first step in fully enabling the platform in the Nile Country. “Enabling Egyptians to shop online with PayPal is a continuation of our commitment to rolling out PayPal services in the MENA region, in line with our corporate strategy to be truly global and allow everyone to shop online with added safety, security and convenience,” Ghanem added. The goal is to serve Egypt’s rapidly growing e-commerce market. Online purchases in Egypt are expected to more than triple by 2016, with Egyptians spending as much as $447.3 million on e-commerce. Egyptians also enjoy shopping on mobile. Smartphone penetration has grown to 26% last year, and an estimated 82% of smartphone users in Egypt have researched a product or service on their phone, while 41% have used their smartphone to make a purchase. (See more in our overview of the Egyptian e-commerce sector). Elias Ghanem joined us yesterday to answer a few questions about PayPal as well as its partnership with Aramex’s Shop and Ship service; watch his video above to hear more about the service’s expansion into Egypt and future plans. Exclusively, Elias will be joining us live today at 3pm Cairo/ 4pm Beirut/ 5pm Dubai to answer your questions live on our Facebook page. Please submit your questions here in the comments, and join us at 4pm to ask questions live on our post on Facebook. ]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/paypal-announces-launch-in-egyptWed, 22 May 2013 07:13:00 +0000 Last week, Lebanese entrepreneur Reine Abbas of Wixel Studios was named one of the five most powerful women in gaming by Inc.com. Abbas stands alongside other notable gaming stars Alisa Chumachenko (Russia), Kellee Santiago (Venezuela), Heather Kelley (U.S.), and Julie Uhrman (U.S.), who even created her own gaming console crowdfunded for $8.6 million via Kickstarter.
“Being recognized in this tough field means that your success is not measured geographically. Having my name alongside these four wonderful women is such a great honor,” says Abbas.
While touring Wixel Studios (see below), we chatted with Abbas about her latest creation, Survival Race, which she designed alongside co-founders Ziad Feghali (her husband) and Karim Abi Saleh. As art director for the project, she developed all of the 3D design work for the mobile game, which launched on April 8, 2013.
Abbas offers a strong model for women entrepreneurs lookking to break into the gaming industry, where women are increasingly a target market. Many women are now jumping in to develop their own titles, like Palestinian developer Rasha Hussein, who just won the Udacity HTML 5 Game Development Contest.
“With the rise of the gaming industry in the Middle East, this is the right moment [for women] to show our potential in general and in the gaming industry specifically,” says Abbas. When asked how she thinks women can gain a more prominent role in the game development field, she said, "This is a current research project I'm conducting. But with the low percentage of females in the global game field, one thing is sure: we have to find the key to growing these numbers fast."
Although the industry has a ways to go to see gender parity, women like Abbas are paving the way for future women to innovate in the market.
Check out our tour of Wixel Studios and an interview with Abbas in the video below.
]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/lebanese-entrepreneur-named-one-of-the-five-most-powerful-women-in-gamingTue, 21 May 2013 14:31:35 +0000 Navigating the funding maze has a lot of challenges, but the panel and “expert speed tables” will address topics including funding and investment pros and cons, deciding if funding is the right path for your business, what kind of capital is right for your business, and how to attract investment.
To learn more about the event or to register, visit their website here.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/tecom-sme-builder-funding-fundamental-for-smes-in-dubaiTue, 21 May 2013 14:11:00 +0000http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/cairo-university-tech-transfer-competition-Tue, 21 May 2013 13:33:00 +0000
During a conference call, Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo!, highlighted the “uncanny complementary nature” of the two services; Yahoo! is strong in sports, finance and news, while Tumblr is strong in fashion, art, architecture, food, travel and more. While Yahoo! is popular among older internet users, Tumblr is more popular amoung young adults.
Mayer rightly assumes that she won’t be able to get Tumblr’s young users to be engaged on Yahoo!, especially with Yahoo!'s reputation as an "uncool" platform. But she does think that Yahoo!'s current users will be more engaged if Tumblr’s content is to be added to Yahoo!’s current newfeed. She’s also betting that new users will start using Yahoo! to discover some more edgy content; claiming a potential for 50% growth in Yahoo!'s audience. 
She's also hoping Yahoo will benefit from Tumblr’s mobile presence. With 50% of their Tumbloggers using their mobile app, the microblogging platform has a leg up on Yahoo! and could potentially bring new insights to the Internet giant, who recently also acquired article summary app Summly.
We asked the Wamda audience on Facebook what they think of the deal. Badr M, from Cairo, shared his thoughts:

“Let Tumblr be Tumblr”
A lot of Tumblr users have spoken out about how their fear that Yahoo! will ruin the platform. Dina Batshon, a Wamda reader from Jordan, said on Facebook: 

To maintain Tumblr's user engagement, Mayer says, “Tumblr will continue to operate as a separate product and business.” The entire team will stay in their NYC headquarters, and founder David Karp will stay on as CEO, reporting directly to Mayer.           
The branding will also remain untouched; Mayer compared the acquisition to the Ebay/Paypal and YouTube/Google deals where the acquired firms have remained independent. The most recent example of Facebook buying out Instagram should also offer some hope to users; commntators made it clear just how much they feared Facebook will ruin Instagram, but so far nothing seems to have changed for the worse.
Tumblr powered by Yahoo! 
There are a couple of ways that Tumblr could gain from the acquisition. First, blogs could benefit from better discover. thanks to Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure.
Second, Tumbloggers will now also be able to monetize, by adding ads on the dashboard, and on the blogs themselves. In both cases, Mayer has made a point to say that ads will be personalized and will only display if users choose them.
What do you think about the acquisition? Will Yahoo! ownership improve Tumblr, or will it ruin the cool factor?
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Aline is French Editor at Wamda. After having worked as the Online Marketing and Community Manager at French startup Buzzcar, she moved to the Middle East. She writes about traveling and culture in the Middle East on her blogyallabye.eu. You can follow her on Twitter  @aline_myd and @yallah_bye, connect with her on LinkedIn, or reach her at aline[at]wamda[dot]com.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/what-does-yahoo-acquisition-of-tumblr-means-to-usersTue, 21 May 2013 11:46:00 +0000 Fresh out of private beta, WamdaCard's benefits include discounts on web design, travel, advertising, office space, shipping, consulting, coworking spaces, events and job postings, among others, and Wamda is regularly adding new partners to the program.
Benefits include:

Google Adwords voucher
20% off from Aramex domestic and international shipping
15% off for 12 months at email service SendGrid
3 months free subscription at music platform Deezer
Free admission to any of Wamda's Mix N' Mentor Events
Discounts on events including Le Web, The Mobile Show, and The Global App Summit

For more about WamdaCard, check out Wamda's announcement here, or visit WamdaCard.com to apply today! To see out the full list of offers, click here.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/the-mini-entrepreneur-becomes-a-wamdacard-memberTue, 21 May 2013 09:10:00 +0000
Ever since the successful launch of Facebook in 2004, and perhaps as early as the first dotcom bubble, several educators and tech gurus have come out to encourage us to teach our kids- all of them- to code. The most recent high-profile effort has come in the form of U.S.-based code.org, which features endorsements from celebrities of all walks of life (from Snoop Dogg to Dr. Oz, and the usual suspects such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg). Several arguments can be made that the Arab world’s educational systems have more pressing and basic priorities, and, in some cases, they in fact do. The region’s educational systems still deal with issues of gender parity, access, and didactic teaching practices. However, there are several crucial and transformative reasons for teaching children how to code early on; four of them are particularly relevant to the Arab world and its current transition.
Firstly, the critical thinking void and lack of problem-solving skills among our students has become a hindrance for the region’s progression. Second, the debilitating fear of failure, and the culture surrounding it, is stifling tinkerability, innovation and entrepreneurship. Third, the prevalent lack of empowerment (even after the “Arab Spring”) coupled with a very consumerist culture is taking us backwards. And fourth, youth unemployment rates, even by Arab government statistics, are some of the highest in the world: an outstanding 25% for the region.
Learning how to code will not solve all these problems. Only a lot of time and dedicated effort might. However, learning to code should be an integral part of the solution.
The biggest misconception about learning to program is that it is specifically about learning a certain “programming language” or creating programmers. Programming is not just a skill; it is a mindset that can be exercised across various disciplines. It encourages sequential thinking, reflection, creation, collaboration, and resourcefulness. By learning how to think structurally and break problems down into manageable (programmable) chunks, children get a “thorough grounding in logic, reason and problem solving”.
As children begin to produce their own code and, eventually, their own programs or applications, they become empowered. They realize that they, as children from the Arab world, are not limited to consuming content online but can actually produce and create it. They don’t only know how to read, but they can also write and hopefully write well, moving from digital literacy to digital fluency.
To do so, youth must learn how to code and manipulate digital media. The resulting empowerment can lead to qualities that are foundational for a shift that finally sees the Arab world adding more value than it consumes. 
Most importantly, coding has a low barrier to entry and low cost of failure. So students who learn how to code also learn the importance of experimentation and hence failure. It enables them to finally see failure as “intentional iteration,” cementing an often dangerously missing “growth mindset” in our children. Getting over this fear of failure is one of the main obstacles to creating truly entrepreneurial economies in the region.
Of course, some of the students who learn coding early on will decide they enjoy it enough to do it full time. If you aren’t sure if that’s a good thing, talk to any entrepreneur across the Arab world with a tech-based product. The shortage of computer engineers and scientists is a global phenomenon, but particularly acute in this region. Zuckerberg put it best when he said: “[O]ur policy at Facebook is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find. There just aren’t enough people who are trained and have these skills today.” Finally, as mentioned above, low barriers to entry allow an easier entry point into entrepreneurship allowing some of our youth to take an easier (but still very difficult) shot at self-employment.
Ideally, the incorporation of programming into the curricula would happen at the K-12 level. Sadly, we don’t all live in Estonia, the birthplace of Skype, where 100% of first graders are already learning how to code.
Thankfully, there are several free options that are available online. MIT’s Scratch software, which focuses on teaching the logic and expression behind coding with no “syntax,” is one of the most popular options with children and schools. Scratch is used at the university level too, most famously by Harvard University’s CS50, its signature Introduction to Programming course. Other popular options include Mozilla’s Hackety Hack and Codeacademy., both self-guided, free, and open to all. Code.org has a more extensive list for children, and of course it’s never too late for adults to start, too.
This piece was inspired by “Coding for Success” by the Kernel’s Andy Young. Photo Credit: San Jose Library & moleculea.
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Nafez is a recent Yale Alum who majored in Economics and International Studies and wrote his thesis on Obstacles towards curriculum reform in Jordan and the UAE. A former strategy consultant, he is currently working on research and strategic planning with different education NGOs in Jordan. He is interested in Education Reform, MENA politics, social entrepreneurship, and tech start-ups. His main passion is the intersection between technology and education entrepreneurship. You can reach him on twitter @ndakkak.
Carine is a Master’s candidate in the Technology, Innovation and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her current research focus is on the creation of educational tools that foster 21st century skills for children of all academic backgrounds in the developing world, with a focus on the MENA region. Prior to Harvard, Carine completed her Bachelor’s of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. At MIT, Carine's research focused on human-centered design, and human machine interfaces and interaction. After Harvard, Carinewill join McKinsey & Company in their Dubai office to join their Education practice. She is interested in education reform, educational innovation, social entrepreneurship, and the disruptive potential of technology in the field of education. You can reach her on twitter @CarineAbiAkar.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/why-every-child-in-the-middle-east-should-be-taught-to-codeTue, 21 May 2013 07:10:00 +0000 Despite the political instability wracking Egypt today, startups have a new source of potential support. But will they take funding from the U.S. government? In an effort to boost Egypt's ailing economy, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund recently launched to invest in Egyptian small and medium-sized businesses, which are known to be the backbone of economic growth worldwide. A public-private partnership involving key members of the American University of Cairo, the Middle East Institute for Law and Development, and investment houses Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the fund will offer backing from the U.S. Treasury Department, in return for equity, with a time limit of ten years; after that, the assets of the Fund will be dissolved and any profits will be split between the Egyptian and American governments, to be reinvested in developmental projects.
The fund will launch with $60 million, and will add an additional $60 million over the next few months, in hopes of reaching $300 million in three years, said James Harmon, Chairman of the Fund’s Board of Directors. As more countries from Asia and Africa join, the fund expects to eventually exceed $1 billion.It comes at a crucial time, just as Egypt is struggling to approve the conditions of the IMF's $4.8 billion loan. As analysts speculate that Egypt doesn't need the IMF, Harmon wrote a pleading letter to the Egyptian government noting that political stability leads to economic stability, which in turn creates job opportunities and encourages foreign investment; can the country agree to support SMEs?A sustainable local model The U.S.'s desire to get involved in funding Egyptian startups is hardly a new idea; John Kerry first proposed the idea to the U.S. Congress two years ago. Since then, the idea has overcome fierce opposition, driven by fear of political instaibility in Egypt, to gain Congressional approval and support from the Egyptian government.
To ensure sustainability beyond the involvement of the U.S., the fund’s Board of Directors have involved several leading figures in Egypt, including Sherif Kamel, Dean of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Hani Sari-El Din, head of the Middle East Institute for Law and Development (MIDL), and Neveen El-Tahri, Regional Director of Delta Shield for Investments. Harmon, along with Jim Owens, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caterpillar Inc., join as Americans, and to round out the board, three Egyptian-Americans have joined: Haytham Al-Nather, Head of TA Stock Investment Corporation, Tarek Abdul Majid, Chairman of the international investment banking sector at Morgan Stanley, and Dina Powell, President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Involving these powerful local leaders demonstrates the longevity of the project; however, Harmon knows that effecting change won't be easy; he doesn't expect to see results for another 3 to 5 years at the very least. “We are lucky if we live long enough to witness the exciting results [of the Fund],” he said soberly.
Scaling the Fund The Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund has called on Arab and Asian nations to join, to build a broad base diversified beyond the U.S. Thus far, it's been successful; one Arab country has expressed a willingness to match amounts funded by U.S., over the next three years. 
In a capital-rich region, the goal is also to provide support beyond funding and loans. “We are also concerned with providing services, trainings, counseling, and advice for business development in Egypt,” Harmon said. While the fund will be sector-agnostic, preference will be given to projects in health, agriculture, and recycling sectors. Ultimately, this fund is not just an investment vehicle; it's also a testing ground. The U.S. Treasury Department also plans on building a similar supporting fund in Tunisia, says Harmon.
So if startups are interested in funding from the U.S., there will be plenty more to go around. ---Hanan Solayman is a freelance journalist and founder of “El Mandara”, a local news portal in Egypt. She studied Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York. You can connect with her via e-mail at hanan@mandaraonline.com or on Twitter @hananzaz. ]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/egyptian-american-enterprise-fund-launches-to-support-egyptian-startupsTue, 21 May 2013 05:10:00 +0000 This report, published by Booz & Company, explains the Arab world’s property market bust that exposed deep structural prob­lems in the region’s real estate development.
The report reveals major errors made by developers that led to the market's downturn, while offering a prescription for a more balanced and stable real estate market going forward. By following a market-driven approach to real estate development, the report concludes that the market will stabilize and new construction will move forward alongside real demand.
Major mistakes outlined in the report include:

No focus. Developers grew in all directions with unfocused business models targeting a range of assets in different countries, as well as multiple segments and classes.


Not profit-driven. Not having to worry about commercial capabilities and profits given the buoyant market, develop­ers rushed to deliver.


Poor risk-management. Most regional players had volatile revenue streams and managed risk poorly—depend­ing excessively on property sales, as opposed to recurring income from leasing and other operations.

Recommendations for moving forward:

Focus. Developers must first decide what kind of developer they want to be and where to operate on the real estate value chain.


Identify real opportunity. Developers should master their chosen markets, and understand all components of the real estate ecosystem so that they can identify and pursue attainable growth opportunities and create sustain­able value.


Follow a balanced plan. Developers should manage their exposure to market risk better by seeking more balanced revenue sources, and elaborating clearer investment and development guidelines.


Deliver on what matters. Real estate players should start developing a set of core capabilities (e.g., opportunity identi­fication, development, asset manage­ment) to deliver sustainable value.

Check out the full report’s findings by downloading it from the grey box on the right.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/riding-the-real-estate-cycle-building-capabilities-for-a-sustainable-future-reportMon, 20 May 2013 13:10:00 +0000 Bayt.com is a job site in the Middle East with more than 40,000 employers and over 10,750,000 registered jobseekers from across the Middle East, North Africa and the globe, representing all industries and career levels.
Learn more and register]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/bayt-virtual-job-fair-hospitalityMon, 20 May 2013 12:07:08 +0000 "We’ve never seen competition like this in Morocco." These are the first words MarocAnnonces founder Tajdine Filali said when asked about the classified sector in Morocco. Once, there might have been 250 different classified websites, of all sizes and quality. But today, the story of classified ads is the story of David versus Goliath. Well, two Goliaths. Marocannonces.ma, which launched in 2000, was founded by local entrepreneur Tajdine Filali, and bootstrapped from the beginning. Now, two giants have entered the market. Avito was launched in 2007 by two Swedish entrepreneurs and is now the 5th most visited website in Russia. Bikhir, part of the Norwegian Schibsted Group, owns leading classified sites across Europe, and sees 5,000 new listings per day, says General manager Larbi Alaoui Belrhiti.
Both have hit the ground running; Avito.ma is leading the market with 3.2 million unique visitors per month, an expected 16 MAD billion (US $2.11 billion) worth of transactions in 2014, which will represent 2% of Morocco’s GDP in 2014. Just ten months after its launch in July 2012, it's the second most visited website in Morocco.Despite the hefty competition, Filali remains optimistic, as his number of listings remains unchanged at 3,000 a day. The market on the whole should continue to grow, as internet access continues to improve; 39% of households have internet access today.
And three websites have at least one thing in common: they’re not afraid of putting in time and money to reach the number one spot. "It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s a long battle," says Alaoui Belrhiti. Who will win?
For Moroccans, by Moroccans?
"We sell anything from camels to cars," jokes Ben Abla. The three websites offer a similar free service for people to buy or sell anything they own in person (anything legal that is).
They also strive for the same image: being seen as a local brand close to people. This image is easier for MarocAnnonces, which has been present in the market for 13 years and has never received an outside investment from anyone.

Avito and Bikhir's managers both believe they have already reached that goal, thanks to their entirely Moroccan team. The two services are also being discreet about their international origins.
Each platform has its own formula for for making sure it's the best: Avito says its team goes through listings 24/7 to and validate the best ones, while at Bikhir, Alaoui Belrhiti brags that the 15 people validating listings are really strict to avoid any fraud or illegal sales. Filali from Maroc Annonces, on the other hand, says their 13 years of local experience and his “secret recipe” make the difference.
As people begin to trust these platforms more and more, these three players will need to focus on other ways to differentiate their strategies.
A powerful name vs. intensive marketing
Avito.ma and Bikhir both believe that the only way to keep the market’s momentum is to educate consumers in Morocco through expensive advertising. 

Both of their parent companies are ready to invest in their Moroccan branches to help them take the lead. Avito.ma recently launched a TV ad campaign, and has signed a partnership with Haja El Hamdaouia, a popular Moroccan pop singer.
Bikhir likewise is capitalizing on mediums besides internet to promote their brand: "Mass-media campaigns, like TV or radio, could be happening soon," says Alaoui Belrhiti.
Their large budgets are also being put to good use to differentiate elsewhere. Bikhir has developed a new mobile app, while Avito.ma is investing in partnerships, including one with Voituresmaroc, the #1 car sale classified website in Morocco.
Maroc Annonces can’t compete with the other guys when it comes to marketing. But Filali says their trusted name and word-of-mouth is enough to get the results they’re looking for. "Today, everybody knows MarocAnnonces; the name speaks for itself," he says. But MarocAnnonces’ transactions have not increased at the same rate as its competitors. Filali might says he’s content with that, but in the long term the site may need a new strategy.
What’s next: buyouts and closures?
Giants Avito.ma and Bikhir are spending quickly and in no hurry to break even. "The most important thing to us is to continue investing and making sure the market reaches a mature state. Once we reach that point, we’ll start thinking about breaking even," says Ben Alba.
But can a smaller and less aggressive company like MarocAnnonces survive Avito and Bihkir’s aggressive user acquisition campaigns?
Last March, a rumor spread that Maroc Annonces was going to be sold to Avito.ma for MAD 15 million (almost $1.7 million). Avito.ma denied it. "For the moment we’re not interested in acquiring one of our competitors,” clarified Ben Abla, adding that "this deal was never discussed and will not happen for now." But Filali is definitely keeping his options open for Maroc Annonces; he mentioned possible offers to be acquired and that he is looking into fundraising. 
Smaller company Souqaffaires.ma may be raising money currently, and regional Dubai-based platform Dubizzle once considered Morocco. Dubizzle tried to enter the market but, cofounder J.C. Butler explained, "decided not to pursue it - we stopped all activities there about a year ago."
Both of these major players admit that their larger goal is to reach Africa. Avito launched in Egypt under the name Bekam in December 2012 where it faces fierce competition from Dubizzle. When asked if Avito will launch in other countries, Ben Abla replied with a non-committal “we’ll see.” Their parent company, the Norwegian Schibted Group, has already taken the jump as they launched beta classified sites in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Nigeria.
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Aline is French Editor at Wamda. After having worked as the Online Marketing and Community Manager at French startup Buzzcar, she moved to the Middle East. She writes about traveling and culture in the Middle East on her blog yallabye.eu. You can follow her on Twitter  @aline_myd and @yallah_bye, connect with her on LinkedIn, or reach her at aline[at]wamda[dot]com.
 ]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/who-s-winning-the-classifieds-market-in-moroccoMon, 20 May 2013 11:33:00 +0000 When I was a teenager in the city of Dhahran, my father used to ask me to go down to Dammam’s busy ‘1st Street’ to find a handyman, negotiate a low price, and only pay after the job was completed to ensure that the work is done properly. Almost 10 years –and countless technological revolutions later- I still go to the same street to get a handyman.
Eyad AlShabaan, a computer scientist based in Dhahran, is trying to change the way Saudi homeowners find service providers for simple repairs and maintenance jobs. He’s currently developing a mobile application called Swipe-A-Service, which helps users find reliable service providers based on your geo-location, allowing users to rate and review each service provider.
Previously, Saudi homeowners were left to negotiate payment, completion time and material costs, now the app aims to take care of the whole transaction.
The growing number of young Saudis that are moving to concentrated urban centers for jobs and educational opportunities only makes the current system more unreliable; more people, more homes, more traffic, more mess. The business of home services in Saudi Arabia is ripe for disruption, and Swipe-A-Service might just be the solution.
There are some positive developments in Saudi Arabia that will only boost such a service. Saudi Arabia has an impressive smartphone penetration rate of 54%, higher than both the United States and South Korea – home to some of the leading smartphone manufacturers.
I spoke with AlShabaan recently about Swipe-A-Service and the role he thinks it could play in improving daily life in Saudi Arabia. He discusses the market for Khaleeji app developers, how to build trust between strangers, especially when using location-based mobile apps, and how he thinks the application could be tailored to meet the same need across the region.
Check out the short interview in the video above.
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Ahmed Al Majid is a graduate of McGill University with a degree in engineering and management. He is interested in collaborative consumption and the application of gamification elements to increase user/costumer engagement in social entrepreneurship projects. Currently he works as a project engineer with Saudi Aramco at the Kesytone Center, an idea translation lab being built inside the anticipated King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He is also the co-founder of the upcoming mobile app KareSpot, a mobile network that aims to connect volunteers with volunteering opportunities in MENA. You can follow him on twitter @ahmed_oo.]]>http://www.wamda.com/2013/05/swipe-a-service-seeks-to-solve-home-repair-troubles-in-saudi-arabia-wamda-tvMon, 20 May 2013 09:12:00 +0000