Disqus - Friends of islamcrunch

Re: Are you using Firefox 3? (Scripting News)

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:09:11 -0000

I've been using it since the first beta, and I switched to it from Firefox 2 after a couple of days of playing around.

The one inconvenience to me is that most of the plugins I had installed on FF2 don't work yet, but still it helped me realize which ones of them I really need, that really help me be more productive, and which ones are just sitting there being useless.

Re: Welcome To StartUpArabia

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:16:35 -0000

@Daniel: Thanks. I'm glad StartUpArabia will be able to open a window onto the startup scene in the Arab region for the whole world to see.

@GaltRoarc: English is the main business language in most of the Arab region, as well as the most used language among the Arab tech community. Plus it's the best way to open up news about the Arab startup scene to the rest of the world.
Anyway, an Arabic version is planned and will be coming soon, I'll also be considering a French version so as to make it even easier for the Arab Maghreb region (North Africa).

Re: Welcome To StartUpArabia

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:45:47 -0000

@Khaled Salah: Thanks, I'm happy you like the idea and that we share the same vision :)

@eyedigress: Thank you for the nice words and wishes :)

@Samih Toukan: Thank you for your comment and your support; it's a pleasure to know you and the guys at Maktoob like the idea.
I totally agree with you on the need for Arabic language, and it is something that is already planned for the near future.

Re: Watwet, Social Networking And Mini-Blogging Platform

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:30:06 -0000

@Robert Michel: Thanks :) Looking forward to hearing more from you :)

@Sucks: Well, even though it is quite similar to Twitter, plus the photo option, the plus with Watwet is that it has an Arabic interface making it more accessible and usable for users who are more comfortable using the Arabic language.
Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce and others do more or less the same thing; why does it have to suck to have an Arab player in the market too? If anything, I think it's enriching.

Re: Welcome To StartUpArabia

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:38:38 -0000

@TripleM: Thanks, I really appreciate your kind words.

@Houssein: Thank you, Glad you liked it. Thanks for writing about it on your blog. I really appreciate it.

@Aymen: Thank you man, I appreciate your wishes.

@Mohammed Said: That's the same reasoning I followed; to me the English version was more important, because it not only informed people in the Arab world, but also those outside of it, which covers a big percentage of this blog's goal.
An Arabic version will come soon, and maybe even a French one too (if it looks like one is needed).
Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot to me. Please do not hesitate to share with me any info about startups from Morocco.

Re: Twffaha, Job Portal For Arab Women

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:16:28 -0000

Personally, the name didn't make me think of the word "Tafaha", but rather "Toffa7a" = Apple.
Just my 2 cents concerning this issue.

Re: Twffaha, Job Portal For Arab Women

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:25:01 -0000

Well Tafaha in Arabic means "Silliness".
Twffaha, which is actually meant to be read Toffaha, as confirmed by the founder, means "Apple".

Re: Otlob, Free Online Food Ordering Service

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:58:37 -0000

Well, from my knowledge of other startups that do the same thing, I'm guessing they get a cut from the restaurants they're delivering for.

So, they provide the delivery service free for the users, but according to the order total, they get a little percentage from the restaurants, and little by little, order by order, those percentages amounts to something.

Re: Places.ae, Dubai’s Location Based Directory

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:10:27 -0000

You're welcome Michael, I really like your service, and truly wish more people would apply this idea around the Arab world.

Let me know when the revamp is done and if there are any other news from your side; I'd be glad to talk about them.

Good luck :) Keep up the great work.

Re: Yamli Enable Advertising In Their Language Tool

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:07:15 -0000

@Hani: I totally agree, it's their right to try to monetize such a useful tool and that they chose to do it in such a subtle and neat way without getting in the way of the user.

Re: Do Arab Startups Really Need An Arabic Interface? [Poll Results]

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:59:30 -0000

Well it's not really a well organized study or anything, it's just a little opinion poll that the site's readers voted on over the period of a bit over 3 weeks.

66 readers voted, giving their opinions on this issue, and the results are the ones listed above.

Re: StartUpArabia, A Month Later

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:17:03 -0000

Thank you all :) I really appreciate all your support and kind words :)

Re: Is trust an issue for you when it comes to Arab startups? [Poll]

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:59:39 -0000

Well, the issue of trust is one that is a general one I guess to all startups, but from the people I've met, I have a sense that it's even more so when it comes to Arab startups, where they have to actually work a little harder to earn people's trust.

Of course, this can be altered through marketing, PR, a great product, good support ...etc; the idea of the poll is to actually identify if it is as big an issue as I feel it is for people.

Re: On Following The Traditional Path

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:49:33 -0000

@za3tar: I totally agree.

@Sam: Yes it is a quote from the book. Personally, I haven't read the book yet, it's on my wishlist though qnd can't wait to read it; I got this quote through a friend who read the book.

Re: Waleg & Ikbis Launch ‘The Online Arabian Star’ Contest

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:35:51 -0000

lol, don't worry, I won't be covering how this goes on, it's not the topic of this blog. I just thought I'd write about it because it shows two Arab startups working together on a new experience.

Re: Ikbis Arab Video & Photo Sharing Site Launches New Design

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:28:23 -0000

Well, yeah just a tiny bit closer :P
On the other hand, I'm interested in hearing about your little secret project ;)

Re: Analysis: Dwwen Blog Aggregator Almost Shut Down

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:44:39 -0000

@Qwaider: It is true that many aggregators approach this as a community service, especially those oriented towards blogs from a certain country or from a certain niche. But if you're a community project, then you have a bigger reason to do your best to survive for that community. And you can do that either by trying to find a commercial income source or by reaching out to the community to donate and keep the project alive.

As for the Arabic internet still being stuck in its infancy, well I think many people are quick to blame users or advertisers for it; but I think that online services hold an equal part of the responsibility. How will the Arabic internet evolve if no Arab startup lives longer than the few initial years the founders can finance it in? Why will advertisers work with a startup that doesn't know where it's going or who its customers are? What added value are these startups bringing to users from the region for them to use them instead of international services? How are a couple of IT guys in a garage for example going to talk to businesses and convince them to buy ad space? There is a lot of work that Arab startups have to do too to get things moving from their side.

@Ashraf: I don't think all services should necessarily appeal to all users; services like Toot and Dwwen for example already have a good following from around the Arab world; plus as an easy access point to blogs, one of their main activity points could be to get more people interested and familiar with the whole concept. Part of building a business sometimes is building the market.

@Muhammad Basheer: Thanks for correcting my information on the Al Jazeera Talk / Dwwen collaboration; I have updated the post with the correct info.

@Mehdi: Well the problem I think is that many of them haven't clearly defined their business model in the first place. I don't agree that personal homepages will kill aggregators though; on your personal homepage you add your favorite blogs, the ones that you know and like. On an aggregator you find a bunch of content from all over the blogosphere, allowing you to be introduced to new content and new blogs all the time. It's a different approach.

Re: Getmo Arabia To Bring Digital Downloads To The Middle East

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:10:40 -0000

@Mamod: Actually, I think it is accessible for some people. As for me, I too am still getting that redirect loop problem.

Re: The Importance Of Having An API For Arab Startups

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:10:21 -0000

@Ashraf: Yes, of course, there are technical considerations behind it, and the implemented architecture should be able to support the opening of the platform via an API.

And that also kind of confirms my idea that if every service could just concentrate on building what they're best at, developing their platform to do its job the best way possible, and optimizing their technical architecture to support their activities fully, then it could be easier for them to open it up later on.

Re: The Importance Of Having An API For Arab Startups

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:51:07 -0000

I agree with both Qwaider and Za3tar that not all online startups need an API; and when I talk about APIs here, I don't really mean that every single service out there should launch one, but where it makes sense, it is a great plus.

Now to the examples you gave za3tar:
- Ikbis could certainly benefit from having an API, it would help people build tools with which to post their photos and videos directly to it; services that provide digital photo printing could offer the possibility to pull photos from ikbis for users to print directly; and a bunch of other stuff as well. Just think of the YouTube API and what people have been doing with it as an example.

- When it comes to Maktoob and Jeeran, they're not really one-service startups, they have many services and products, some of which could use an API and some that don't need one. For example, Maktoob's Kalimat Araby program will make good use of an API by letting agencies easily handle their sponsored link purchases; their As7ab service could also benefit from jumping on the whole social networking API bandwagon, opening their system to talk with other services like facebook, orkut, bebo and all.
- Dwwen might not really need an API in its current form, and that's just fine, it's not really a must.

Re: Why I Don’t Trust Arab Online Services

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:25:36 -0000

This article hits the nail straight on the head, listing a number of the issues that Arab startups and entrepreneurs have to seriously think about overcoming for them to succeed and build a solid user base.

Trust is obviously a big issue when it comes to Arab startups, which is confirmed by the results of the StartUpArabia poll on that question up to now.

Re: Why I Don’t Trust Arab Online Services

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:17:59 -0000

I agree with many of the points and counter-arguments that are being posted in response to this post. Still I think the post reflects the thoughts of many people, no matter how true or untrue they are.

I like Razan's example of Starbucks/Cups & Kilos; which can apply to many other businesses and sectors as well; This is the environment Arab startups are being launched in, it's not an easy one, and there is a problem of perception and bias towards everything branded and international when it comes to their target audience; but it is a joint effort to overcome all of this and show that Arab startups are every bit as trustworthy as international ones, and that they can provide the added-value that should get people to choose them instead of some other counterpart.

As Razan's example was from Jordan, I'll pick an example from the same country: Chili House, I think is an example of a business that was able to create a place for it right next to McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and the other big brands.

I think it's all about showing professionalism, quality, organization, openness, and building trust within the community.

Re: Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation & PICTI Sign MoU

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:07:05 -0000

Could you please share some of the companies you know of that are hosted by PICTI? I'm really interested in knowing and writing about them.

Re: D1G Acquires Popular Jordanian Forum E7ki

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:44:06 -0000

I'm guessing Mahjoob.com is the biggest and most popular one in Jordan too; still E7ki seems to be among the other top ones to trigger such an acquisition.

Re: Ayna Launches Beta Of Online Map Service for the Middle East & North Africa

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:48:04 -0000

@Startup Tunisie: Well Google Maps doesn't really give much detail on the map view, even though the satellite view is very good. Ayna Maps aims to provide a better detailed map view.

@Michael: It's still in beta, and I think they still have some things to work out, and I think some maps have to be revised, for example the map of Tunis has some wrong street names, but hopefully future versions will be better, and yeah, it could be cool to have place.ae use their maps too.

@GaouZief: Well it is in beta right now, hopefully it'll get better as it matures as a service.