The Middle East is an area of interest and intrigue to many organisations. It is often seen as a region of promise and opportunity, however cultural differences, linguistic challenges and legal complexities can prove a stumbling block and a barrier [...]]]> The Middle East is an area of interest and intrigue to many organisations. It is often seen as a region of promise and opportunity, however cultural differences, linguistic challenges and legal complexities can prove a stumbling block and a barrier to entry. The Arab Spring in 2010-11 was not only a major world event but also an indication of the digital development of the region and the possibilities that exist there for international businesses.

Such is the importance of this region, that it is on the agenda for the upcoming International Search Summit London in May, where Lee Mancini of Dubai-based SEO agency Sekari will be offering insights into internet behaviour in the Middle East and advice for businesses targeting an Arabic audience. Here, Lee answers a few questions to introduce the topic and preview his session in London.

How has the internet market developed in the Middle East in recent years? What are its key characteristics?

There is no greater evidence of the growth of digital in the Middle East than with the occurrence of the Arab Spring. In only a few months this event completely altered the political landscape, a landscape which remained unchanged for previous decades.  The advent of digital mobile connections, the ability to connect and communicate (and organise) on social networks, the sheer power of the medium to communicate to millions broke the tipping point and took everyone by surprise. If such developments can topple governments, they can just as easily make or break brands. By mixing an incredibly young population (in Saudi 50% of the population are under the age of 25), and by simply giving them the ability to express themselves, you can see the new paradigm shift that has occurred in the Middle East.

In the Middle East, like the rest of the world, the economic downturn forced companies to have to take a deeper look at their marketing budgets and strive to increase their ROI – so, in some cases, digital became a more viable option then the traditional one page ad in a national newspaper.  Couple this with this undeniable growth in internet adoption and finally, after many years, the inflection point has been and gone.  Recent reports announce internet advertising spend to have reached 9% in the GCC (Gulf Corporation Council) and Levant, equating to $170m in 2011 out of a possible $2bn advertising market (Omnicom Media Group). It was 1% in 2009.  And that figure is expected to grow 30%-40% in 2012.

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China’s leading search engine Baidu will be joining Russian market leader Yandex and Middle Eastern search engine Ayna at the International Search Summit London on 28th October.

Senior Product Manager for Baidu, Min Cui, will be speaking on the Chinese [...]]]> China’s leading search engine Baidu will be joining Russian market leader Yandex and Middle Eastern search engine Ayna at the International Search Summit London on 28th October.

Senior Product Manager for Baidu, Min Cui, will be speaking on the Chinese search market and giving delegates insights into how marketers can use Baidu to reach a Chinese audience.

Min Cui manages the Product team that looks after the Phoenix Nest Platform, Baidu’s own ad management and ad serving system.

China, Russia and The Middle East are 3 of the fastest growing global internet markets, and a recent study has shown that web users in China and The Middle East spend more time online than in any other markets.

All three search engines will be presenting at the event, as well as participating in a Q & A session.

Also speaking at the Summit is Inway Ni, the VP of 4399.com – the largest gaming site in China. He will be discussing how he has achieved such success with his website and giving tips and advice on effective SEO and SEM strategies for the Chinese market.

The Summit will also feature case studies from global organisations Autodesk and The British Council, and sessions from leading global search experts including Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Marty Weintraub and Massimo Burgio.

Tickets for the Summit are still available.

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The Middle East is one of the major growth regions for the internet, and a study released this week revealed that web users in the region spend more time online than many of their Western counterparts. Here, Omar Khaled, [...]]]> The Middle East is one of the major growth regions for the internet, and a study released this week revealed that web users in the region spend more time online than many of their Western counterparts. Here, Omar Khaled, Partner Relations Manager for Arabic search engine Ayna, talks about how search is evolving in the region and the opportunities available to both local and international markets.

Omar, tell us about Ayna

Ayna is an established company headquartered in USA with branches in UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon. Our core business is offering local answers and solutions to Internet users in the Middle East & North African (MENA) region. Ayna started in 1997 by bringing the first Arabic Search Engine set to the convenience of Arab users all over the region. Today, Ayna has a wide range of online services and up-to-date technologies, thus reaching the widest user segment in our region. To check our services, please go to http://ayna.com/index.en.html

What is the search market like in The Middle East at the moment?

The search market is witnessing impressive developments in our region. Last year, search advertising was up by double-figures  from the year before. Analysts predicted that it is expected to grab a bigger share of the internet advertising market within the coming four years.  Search Advertising has now become an affordable, measurable, and traceable tool of promotion. We believe our market is a fertile market, and is bound to witness noticeable growth within the coming years.

What are the opportunities for marketers targeting users in the region?

Internet in our region retains a substantial audience. Latest studies have shown that the MENA internet users spend more time online than watching TV throughout the day. The studies have also showed that the internet usage in our region remains at its peak all day long compared to other media. This indicates that the internet has become the number one media consumed by users during the day, thus opening new opportunities for marketers to target users in the region. In addition, some countries in this region are continuing to heavily invest in the Information & Communication Infrastructure as part of the strategies to develop local economies and increase the number of web users.

Does the Arabic language pose any challenges in search campaigns?

Arabic  is the seventh most popular language on the web, with more than 344 million Arabic users worldwide. Such figures show that the Arabic language is a key factor in the success of a local search campaign targeting locals that intend and prefer to have their search experience in their native language. Case studies have shown that local audiences respond more to advertisements in their local language, which have local relevance. This is certainly the case in The Middle East and North Africa.

If you could give one tip to organisations embarking on Arabic campaigns, what would it be?

“Localize Yourself!” If you want to target locals, you have to have a well-set local campaign. During our session in the International Search Summit, we will be giving some tips and tricks on how to target locals and create successful Arabic campaigns.

Hear Omar speak at the International Search Summit on 28th October in London. Tickets are still available.

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LinkBait goes to 2nd grade – Israeli web2sport community purchased a soccer team and [...]]]> LinkBait goes to 2nd grade – Israeli web2sport community purchased a soccer team and from now on all professional decisions aren’t made by a coach, the fans will decide.

From Reuters:

Most of our surfers like the idea that they can decide what the team will do: who will be in the first 11, what formation they will play and who will be the substitutes
The Internet fans can drag players they think should play into their preferred positions on a pitch diagram by a deadline. The information is then collated and the players who get the most votes will line up for the next match. We thank our sponsors – Play65 Backgammon site.

A group photo of the team – getting instructions directly from the Mac…

All the games are transmitted live and the fans decide on positions changes, substitutes (and replacing timing) etc. This makes Hapoel Play65 Kiryat Shalom the first Interactive team that is managed as a social media democracy.

sources:

Reuters – Israeli soccer club puts online fans in charge
Yahoo News – The First Web 2.0 Football Club in the World

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At least two major new features are arriving in Google’s webmaster tools console according to information from the SES San Jose conference and the official Google webmaster tools blog.

The latter has announced support for the Internationalizing Domain Names [...]]]> At least two major new features are arriving in Google’s webmaster tools console according to information from the SES San Jose conference and the official Google webmaster tools blog.

The latter has announced support for the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) and a series of further enhancements are expected. IDNA enables webmasters to use domain names which exist outside the original 26 characters used for the English-language – but not for too many other languages since many have odd accented characters. Additionally, this brings greater support for asiatic and arabic character sets.

The other new development which is currently being looked at, according to a senior Google source, is the addition of a tool within webmaster tools whereby you can specify the country your site relates to. The countries will be listed in a drop down list – and you’ll almost certainly only be able to choose once country per site.

For a long time it has been a problem if you site was a .com site with no history of activity in a country for Google to pick out the right ‘bucket’ in which to list your site. For some this was an embarrasment – for others a major business hurdle. Matters were worse for those .coms hosted in a country other than the one they were targeting – perhaps for business political or content management system reasons. The result was you might be targeting France with a site hosted in Norway – but not end up appearing in the ‘Pages Francophones’ of Google.fr – even if the language of the site was French.

The simplest way of solving this problem has always been to have local country domains in which case – contrary to what one SES panelist advised in San Jose, the hosting location becomes irrelevant. For many, this isn’t practical – hence the reason why some have chosen to host locally to get around the problem.

These two developments combined will help international SEO specialists manage their projects with less frustration!

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Madar Research has released figures which show that the number of internet users in the Arab world exceeds 26.3 million with an increased growth rate in 2005 of 18% giving a 9 million increase. Penetration of access [...]]]> Madar Research has released figures which show that the number of internet users in the Arab world exceeds 26.3 million with an increased growth rate in 2005 of 18% giving a 9 million increase. Penetration of access is quoted at 8.5%.

The leading Arab country for access remains the United Arab Emirates and broadband use is increasing too – though in different rates in different parts of the arab world.

Madar Research forms part of the Safawi project with German search engine company Seekport. Safawi is to be launched later this year and will have full Arabic-language search capabilities.

Arabic internet users – as we have reported previously – often have good English fluency but are not comfortable searching in English. The availability of more search engines in Arabic will be a significant plus.

Source: Itp.NET

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Israel court of law, in a new verdict allows an Israeli clothes company to use its competitor name for AdWords searches conducted via google.co.il.
This is the first Israeli case in which the judge rules in favour of the sued [...]]]> Israel court of law, in a new verdict allows an Israeli clothes company to use its competitor name for AdWords searches conducted via google.co.il.
This is the first Israeli case in which the judge rules in favour of the sued company.
In it’s verdict, Judge Magen Altubia states that a search engine is an ad based media, and the fact that competitors use each other names is just natural. Furthermore to the loss the prosecutor (Matim-Li) will have to pay court expenses at an amount equal to 20,000$.

Via Haaretz (Hebrew)

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Faster internet connection speeds look like they’re going to arrive in Saudi Arabia – according to Arab News – and this is to be achieved through electrical wall sockets. This method is expected to take the Saudi broadband speeds [...]]]> Faster internet connection speeds look like they’re going to arrive in Saudi Arabia – according to Arab News – and this is to be achieved through electrical wall sockets. This method is expected to take the Saudi broadband speeds from 512Kbps to 2Mbps – which will inevitably drive internet growth and usage making the Arabic language more important on the world internet stage.

That will leave quite a few corners of the UK and Europe where speeds are lower!

Source: AME Info

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Threadwatch carries the news that Seekport are partnering with an Arabic company to create a new Arabic language search engine:

“There is no (full) Arabic Internet search engine on the market. You find so-called search engines, [...]]]> Threadwatch carries the news that Seekport are partnering with an Arabic company to create a new Arabic language search engine:

“There is no (full) Arabic Internet search engine on the market. You find so-called search engines, but they involve a directory search, not a local search. There’s nothing available for overall Internet search,” Hermann Havermann, managing director of German Internet tech firm Seekport, told Reuters.

“There is not enough Arabic content available on the Internet. But there’s no motivation to put more Arabic content on the Internet as long as you don’t have a system to find the content,” Havermann said.

The Yahoo! news article reports that the Arabic online advertising market could grow to $150 million in 2008 from $10 million at present.

Source: TW | Yahoo! News

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Not much is reported on search engine or internet use in the Arab world, relatively speaking, but the Algeria-based Confederation of Finance and Account Executives has published figures giving Algeria 1 million internet users from a 32 million population.

Sources:
]]> Not much is reported on search engine or internet use in the Arab world, relatively speaking, but the Algeria-based Confederation of Finance and Account Executives has published figures giving Algeria 1 million internet users from a 32 million population.

Sources:
albawaba.com middle east news information::Algeria: 1 million internet users

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The Saudi-based Dar Al Riyadh Holding Group has launched a new beta version English-speaking search engine built by Tajseed Solutions.

New english-speaking Arabic search engine launched in beta

Deepy has a look of Microsoft (that search button…?) and the now [...]]]> The Saudi-based Dar Al Riyadh Holding Group has launched a new beta version English-speaking search engine built by Tajseed Solutions.

New english-speaking Arabic search engine launched in beta

Deepy has a look of Microsoft (that search button…?) and the now standard Google format. However, it has a very neat spelling feature which corrects you as you type.

This may seem innocuous enough – but if English is not your mother tongue and the world’s information is largely recorded in English and only findable by searching in that language – you’d appreciate some help with your spelling wouldn’t you?

A report carried out in 2004 by Web Certain suggested that Arabic speakers, amongst other non-English mother-tongue speakers, found searching in English less than easy. Deepy may just have come up with a solution which may well be copied by others. Now that would be a good idea if search engines added accent correction to their none-English sites!

Reported by Abondance

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The Kuwait News Agency – reported in the China-based online newspaper People’s Daily Online – is to launch an arabic language search engine to archive arabic sites on the web.

The news was revealed by the Kuwaiti Director General of [...]]]> The Kuwait News Agency – reported in the China-based online newspaper People’s Daily Online – is to launch an arabic language search engine to archive arabic sites on the web.

The news was revealed by the Kuwaiti Director General of the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the world information forum in Cairo.

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The Gulf Daily News reports that internet growth in the arab world will slash service costs. The leading country for internet access is the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. A reduction is the cost of [...]]]> The Gulf Daily News reports that internet growth in the arab world will slash service costs. The leading country for internet access is the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. A reduction is the cost of broadband is expected which will push internet access higher.

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