Everything You Need to Know About the Gaming Landscape: Business Models, Distribution Platforms and Beyond

By Wael Nabbout | May 22, 2013 | Section: Coverage |

What are the hot trends in the gaming sector? What are the most popular types of games? What’s new in monetization, and what is the role of telecom operators in this process? What are the best distribution platforms, and what is the optimal strategy for each?

To answer these questions, today we are sharing the "Enabling Game Development" panel from the ArabNet Beirut 2013 conference.

And as a bonus, we're throwing in a hands-on workshop on Corona Labs, a cross-platform mobile development framework.

Inforgraphic: Mobile Content Consumption in MENA

By Ghanah Qasem | May 21, 2013 | Section: Infographic |

Among the 149 million unique visitors in MENA over the month of December, 48 millions visited news websites in the local language while 12 million visited news websites in English. Entertainment is the second most popular topic with 35 million unique visitors, followed by business & finance: 14 millions, and mobile focused websites: 13 million.

On average 19% of this activity takes place on a mobile. If we break that down onto the categories listed above, we seen that 96% of mobile focused websites are accessed from mobile, local language news sites rank second with 29%, while English news websites' mobile access drops to 12%. Entertainment, the most popular theme is least accessed on mobile with 12%.

Curious to know which are the top 5 local news websites?

Hsoub Launches its Affiliate Marketing Network

By Wael Nabbout | May 21, 2013 | Section: Announcements |

The local online advertising space keeps picking up steam. After several major announcements from regional players Hsoub and ikoo, Hsoub is back again today announcing the launch of its new Affiliate Network.

The network allows publishers to publish and distribute offers and promotional material by advertisers on blogs, forums, or through social networks or email messages. The publishers, aka affiliates, earn money from each purchase, conversion and from new customer referred to the advertiser’s website.

Everything You Need to Know about Online Reservations, Food Delivery & Content

By Wael Nabbout | May 17, 2013 | Section: Coverage |

Food delivery services, restaurant reservations and food communities have been flourishing on the web. Local players have been extending beyond their borders seeking bigger markets in the region. And despite the rapid growth of key players in these spaces, there are still massive opportunities in MENA.

To highlight the potential of these industries, as well as the challenges and characteristics of each, we are sharing 3 panels from our latest event, ArabNet Beirut, that tackle 3 areas of the online food business: delivery reservation and content.

Newly Created Incubator Venture Lab Runs its First Competition for Entrepreneurs, Deadline in 3 Days

By ArabNet | May 15, 2013 | Section: Announcements |

The Venture Lab Challenge, VL Challenge for short, is a startup competition launched by the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program (EIP) at AUC School of Business, in cooperation with Intel. Prized include 100 000 EGP in seed funding and fast tracking winners to Intel’s MENA challenge 2013, and, as a top prize, incubation at the AUC Venture Lab, newly created business incubator at the heart of the AUC New Cairo campus. The deadline to apply is May 18^th, so you’ve got 3 days left to submit.

During the competition, entrepreneurs will complete their prototype, receive mentoring from faculty and experienced entrepreneurs, compete for prizes, and acquire the needed exposure to launch successful businesses. At the end of the competition, teams will have an opportunity to pitch and present their products to potential investors and key industry experts.