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.

mediaME spoke to Samer Abdin, co-founder of Istikana.com, an online video-on-demand service for the Arab World. Samer shares his views regarding growth in online video, the importance of Arabic content, the latest in video advertising options and more.

Q. Tell us about the services that Istikana.com provides

Istikana.com is a website that delivers premium Arabic TV content. It is very similar to U.S-based services like Hulu and Netflix. We have a broad selection of premium Arabic content including television series, comedies and theatre productions. Our specialized service is available on-demand, and is accessible across multiple platforms.

Q. What motivated you and your partners to introduce Istikana to the Middle East market?

The idea occurred to us due to the lack of such a service. We saw that equivalent services in the UK and Europe like Hulu and Netfilx had taken off, and we discussed the fact that there was no real equivalent for the Arab World that featured Arabic content. That's how the idea started, and that was the need we were trying to fill. We were trying to meet the public's need to watch the content that they want, when they want it, on the devices that they want.

Q. Tell us why the video audience in the Middle East will utilize such specialized portals compared to international video aggregation communities like YouTube?

I think one of the fundamental differences between our service and a site like YouTube is the 'localization' issue. There is a plethora of content on YouTube, a lot of which is international content, as YouTube is an international website. We are an Arabic site with Arabic content, specifically Arabic TV content. This makes us quite different from a service like YouTube, which is largely user-generated. We have fully produced TV shows, and we don't serve the user generated market. We offer fully produced content. We meet the need of consumers that want to watch certain content, whenever they want, on the multiple devices that they have.

Q. What types of content categories are you offering? Which are the most popular? And what kind of difference you are seeing on a country-by-country basis?

We offer a very broad range of content. Our site offers dramas, comedies, theatre productions, cartoons, documentaries, religious segments, as well as movies. So we really do have a wide range of content. We have accumulated thousands of hours of video. The most popular genre is drama, as well as cartoons and documentaries. People really seem to enjoy the drama genre in the Arab World. It is quite well developed, thanks to the popular Ramadan series. People associate with the content they see and remember these series years after they have aired.

We haven't seen much of a variation in terms of country by country. Most of our traffic comes from Saudi Arabia, and the rest is split between the Levant and North Africa. Generally, the drama genre is most popular in all countries. It seems to be quite a common thing. Cartoons and documentary are also quite popular. However, all the genres have a fair amount of viewership, but generally, we have not seen much of a variation between countries.

Q. Tell us about advertising options on online video communities and why they differ from typical web advertising in terms of the results they deliver.

We offer the full suite of normal web advertising, i.e. all the banner options. We also offer the full suite of in-video advertising, so that includes pre-rolls and mid-rolls. We also offer overlays whether they be static, flash or animated, there is a whole range. The standard web advertising formats are the banners, and they have been around for quite some time now. The viewer generally has limited engagement with banners, and this is proven by one of the standard metrics, the click through rate (CTR).

Whereas with video advertising, viewers just inherently engage with the 'moving, talking' format a lot more than they do with something that is a bit more static or something that is purely display-based, like a banner. Click through rates (CTRs) for video ads are significantly higher than banners, we are talking an average of 4% and upwards. It has been proven in other markets that the video format is inherently more engaging, and provides much better results in terms of things like over all re-call, message re-call, and brand re-call.

Whichever metric you choose to measure by, video adverts tend to fare better than static ones. In fact online video advertising does much better than regular TV advertising. There are all sorts of research done by Nielsen, which shows improvements of up to 50% in terms of the online formats vs. regular TV formats. I think online video advertising is really the new medium for consumer brand interaction.

Q. Tell us about the response you have received so far from clients and advertising agencies regarding video advertising, and tell us about the levels of awareness you are seeing in the market.

The reaction of viewers has generally been quite good. We've had some feedback about scheduling (how often we put advertisements up, and how for how long), and we've taken that feedback into account and adjusted. I think it's a format that viewers are generally very used to and accept, especially when it comes to free viewing.

In reality, it is similar to regular TV. You watch a TV program on regular cable, and expect to have advertising intervals. It's a fairly normal and standard way of doing things. Now, that has transferred over to the web.

On the other hand, advertisers have been very excited by what we are doing. I think there is an issue in terms of awareness and the 'newness' of in-video advertising in the region. It has only been present this past year, but the proof is in the pudding. When a company runs a campaign with us, they tend to be very pleased with the results and tend to come back. We have proven to them that this is a very effective ad format. There is still a long way to go, it is still a young market, but we are very optimistic that next year we will see significant growth.

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

There are two main obstacles. One is awareness, which I mentioned previously. The second major issue is the measurement problem, (how to measure effectiveness, how to measure viewership beyond the standard unique viewers, etc...). A lot of work needs to be done to have the facilities to really measure the Return on Investment (ROI), a lot of work needs to be done to accurately measure regular TV advertising, as well as online viewership. As measurement tools improve, people will really start to see the value in online video advertising. People really need to be able to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. I think with time, that will improve.

Q. Apart from advertising revenue, is Istikana planning other forms of monetization of its content? Tell us more about how these can be achieved.

Well, we are keeping a very close eye on that. I think there are fairly significant barriers in the region regarding subscriptions, payment gateways, credit card options, especially in what is acknowledged to be the most lucrative market, Saudi Arabia. Saudis are relatively reluctant to use credit cards online. They currently have the facility to do so, but they haven't taken it up. However there have been some really interesting things coming out of Saudi Arabia with regard to gaming. A considerable amount of Saudis pay for games like 'World of Warcraft' and the like. There is a growing use of SMS payment. Obviously the economics are different there because there is the operator to think about (they do take a cut). There are some very interesting things going on in regards to payment. We are keeping a very close eye on this and when we think the time is right, we will be implementing some kind of payment infrastructure.

Q. What are the upcoming breakthroughs or technologies that will impact online video distribution and advertising?

We're starting to see very specialized services in the US and the UK, providing very innovative solutions for in-video advertising. 'Hulu' now does a 'pick your ad' option. It gives viewers four or five advertisements to choose from, and they get to pick which ad you want to see. In the UK, they have story-based ads, viewers can choose between three or four different stories to follow. Therefore, the video starts with a pre-roll followed by a mid-roll that is a continuation of the pre-roll. I think there are some very innovative services coming out, which will eventually debut in our region.

In terms of video technology, I think we are moving to multiple screen formats. Online TV will be available on mobiles, tablets etc. It will eventually include the actual TV itself. I think those technologies are being developed very quickly with the help of television manufacturers. Eventually, our service will be available on actual TV sets. I think that will be the ultimate breakthrough for our services, because ultimately, TV content belongs on the actual TV set.