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First anniversary of BasharJobs.com approaches with a second wave of feature enhancements

Sun, 2012-01-22 07:59 - By

Digital Media, Media, BasharJobs, BasharSoft, egypt, EMPLOYMENT, Mohammed Al-Garhy, Online recruitment

BasharJobs is celebrating its first anniversary, concluding an event year during which it focused on presenting new technology and building an understanding of its talent acquisition features. During this year BasharJobs successfully demonstrated strong market growth and introduced a new set of features which caused quite a stir among the employment market in Egypt.

George Akra: Video advertising provides more brand exposure, more engagement and better results

Mon, 2012-01-16 09:16 - By

editor

Advertising Business, Digital Media, Interview & Opinion, Media Business, Electronics & Technology, Media, AdSense, Arab Spring, Click Through Rate (CTR), egypt, Flash Player, George Akra, HTML5, JORDAN, KSA, Toot Corp., UAE, youtube

mediaME spoke to George Akra, co- founder of Toot Corp., a company that has several online properties including ikbis.com, a regional video sharing site. George discusses the growth of online video in the region, the effects of the current political climate on video content, and the future of online video advertising in the Middle East and more.

Q. Tell us about the growth of video viewership in the Middle East in the past few years.

We have seen that an increasing amount of people are watching videos online. Internet penetration has increased in several countries especially in the Gulf, like the UAE and KSA, and it is growing in countries like Jordan and Egypt. So, Internet penetration is constantly on the rise, and Internet speed is also increasing regionally. This means people have more bandwidth, and therefore have the ability to watch more videos. This can also be attributed to the breadth of content that is now available.

Q. What in your opinion are the obstacles to faster growth in this regard? Why isn’t there more Arabic content on the Internet?

There are several contributing factors. To start with, I think the major issue is that Internet penetration remains relatively low. It is increasing exponentially, and we now have higher Internet speeds and more bandwidth, but it is still a problem. The other problem is that there is a lot self censorship in the region, meaning people are still afraid of producing their own content. For people hoping to monetize such a service, this remains a critical issue.

Q. From your experience, what are the most popular video content categories in the Middle East? And kindly tell us about some differences on a country-by-country basis.

It really differs from time to time. Before the regional revolutions, we were seeing a lot of content that was funny and entertaining. The videos featured a lot of pranks ...etc. The videos covered a range of genres, but the user-generated content that was most popular was basically the content that was shot in countries like KSA (videos of people drifting in their cars, people pulling pranks on each other). After the revolutions, we had a lot of political content being uploaded. A lot of people uploaded footage of protests that they had filmed with their phones. We are seeing more opinionated videos being uploaded, as people's desire for freedom of expression has increased over the past year.

Q. Ikbis and video communities are at the forefront of the video advertising revolution in the Middle East. Tell us about video advertising options and why they differ from typical web advertising.

Video advertising is different from regular banners in the sense that you are seeing visual content that is animated, that is moving. The advertisement is part of the video itself, so it is very similar to TV advertising because you have to watch the ad in order to view the actual content. It is so effective because you get more brand exposure and more engagement. This type of advertisement will surely yield better results. The 'Click Through Rate' (CTR) of a video campaign will generally be much higher than that of a banner campaign.

Q. Are we reaching the tipping point for video advertising to grow exponentially in the Middle East? Or is it still early?

Most agencies (the major ones, at least) have started running video advertisements. Their clients, as well as the agencies themselves are very happy with the results. We are seeing major organizations now advertising via online video advertisements. There is still a long way to go in the region in terms of development. Advertisers still don't use the correct ad formats (the correct length of ads and proper filming techniques). However, over the next twelve months we expect to see considerable growth in the online video advertising industry.

Q. What in your opinion are the obstacles preventing faster growth in digital media expenditures in the region?

First of all, you have all these companies (and their marketing managers) that still do not believe in the effectiveness of online video advertising. Many people want to stay in their comfort zone. They want to see a tangible ad, a billboard in the street, an ad in a newspaper or on TV. They still don't believe in the power of online advertising and its efficiency and measurability. That's the major reason why we continue to see small online budgets.

Q. What is the next big thing or major technology that will impact video advertising?

Google Adsense has been providing video advertisements for video publishers, and i think they will be making their way to the region soon. Clients will also begin advertising via YouTube, so I think that will be interesting. We are also seeing more ad networks moving into video advertisements, so that will be a trend to observe.

In terms of technology, I think something that would be able to provide video sites with the ability to publish ads without using a proprietary player would be a real breakthrough. We may be seeing that happening with integration of video for various video players, whether it be using 'Flash' or 'HTML 5'.

Ipsos launches online panel in Saudi Arabia

Tue, 2012-01-10 10:05 - By

editor

Announcement, Media Business, Media, egypt, IPSOS, MENA region, Nader Kobeissi, Research-Live.com, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Ipsos has launched an online panel in Saudi Arabia, as part of its plan to set up several online panels in the MENA region. The next two panels are set to launch in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates this year. The panels will be run by Ipsos Interactive Services, which is led by director Nader Kobeissi. “Our ultimate goal is to build our own panels for all the markets in which Ipsos operates and thus ensure equal data quality among the different countries,” said Kobeissi.

Pan Arab Research Center reveals regional ad spend for 2011

Sun, 2012-01-08 09:04 - By

editor

Ad spend, Bahrain, egypt, kuwait, Lebanon, M Shaharyar Umar, Oman, Pan Arab Research Center, PARC, qatar, Saudi Arabia, The Arab Spring, UAE

The Pan Arab Research Center has released its advertsing statistics for 2011. According to the PARC's findings, the region demonstrated resilience and stability in the wake of the Arab Spring as advertising revenues totaled US$14.3 billion in 2011 (a 4% increase). According to the PARC's findings, the UAE has regained its status as the leading advertising market in the region, demonstrating a 1% growth.

UAE is the region's largest advertising market

Thu, 2012-01-05 09:20 - By

editor

Advertising Business, Advertising News, Advertising, egypt, GulfNews.com, M. Shaharyar Umar, Pan Arab Research Centre, Saudi Arabia, UAE

According to data from the Pan Arab Research Centre, the UAE has regained its status as the region's largest advertising market in 2011, as the UAE saw $1.44 billion in ad spending this year. Saudi Arabia came second in the region, with a 9% gain in ad spend. "Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE out of the monitored markets in the region posted growth," said M. Shaharyar Umar at the Pan Arab Research Centre. Meanwhile, Egypt's ad spending plummet by nearly 40% as the country experienced political turmoil.

#Egypt: the top hashtag on Twitter in 2011

Fri, 2011-12-30 14:12 - By

editor

Digital Media, Media, egypt, Japan, Mail & Guardian Online, Twitter

Twitter has revealed its top hashtags for the year. The top hashtag this year was #egypt, following the downfall of president Hosni Mubarak in February. Other popular trending topics included the Arab Spring and the Japanese earthquake.

The year's top eight hashtags are:

1. #egypt

2. #tigerblood

3. #threewordstoliveby

4. #idontunderstandwhy

5. #japan

6. #improudtosay

7. #superbowl

8. #jan25

PARC: Ad spend up for Ramadan, but less than last year due to regional unrest

Tue, 2011-08-30 05:27 - By

editor

Advertising Business, Advertising, egypt, Etisalat, Gulfnews, Mobily., Mobinil, Pan Arab Research Centre, PARC, Pepsico, RAMADAN, Shaharyar Umar, ZAIN

Despite the regional unrest and the economic downturn in the US, Ramadan witnessed an increase in advertising expenditures compared to previous months this year, but remains lower than last year.

This is due to the political unrest sweeping many parts of the region, coupled with the credit downgrade in the US and the debt crisis in Europe.

PARC reports decline in advertising spend across MENA region

Thu, 2011-08-04 09:53 - By

editor

Advertising News, Advertising, Bahrain, egypt, Lebanon, Pan Arab Research Centre, qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

A Pan Arab Research Centre study reports a notable decline in the region's advertising market except for Saudi Arabia and Lebanon where spending has increased, with a record of 8% and 3% respectively.

The region's advertising market has dropped by 4% decline to $5.85bn during the first six months of 2011 over the same period last year. The UAE has topped the list of the region's biggest advertising markets, replacing Egypt which climbed down to the fourth position.

Egyptians uncertain over use of social media for elections

Mon, 2011-07-25 07:07 - By

editor

Media Business, Media, ArabianBusiness, Campaign, democracy, egypt, Facebook, hosni mubarak, illiteracy, Mohamed ElBaradei, social media, Twitter, United Nations

Egyptians are startng to wonder whether faith in social media will invigorate their revolt against Hosni Mubarak, as the key to Egypt's democratic future might be a little overdone.

As candidates jostle in the run-up to elections to replace military rule with a civilian democracy, politicians have latched onto the web to show they are in tune with the youngsters who began the uprising against the veteran leader.

Local WP7 developer portal Yalla Apps adds new features into the mix

Mon, 2011-07-18 14:13 - By

editor

Digital Media, Electronics & Technology, Alexander Rauser, egypt, features, Local WP7, Microsoft’s Tech-Ed, MoneyBookers, Pakistan, tbreak.com Paid App Submission, Windows Phone 7, Yalla Apps

Yalla Apps, the Windows Phone 7 developer portal that is now trusted by thousands of developers to publish their Apps into the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, is now making its services even more convenient to the community.