More than 70% of internet users in Saudi Arabia conduct their searches in Arabic, and almost 60% of the Kingdom's users access Facebook through Arabic accounts.
Mr. Mina Takla, Co-Founder of Taghreedat, commented, "It's not news that Arabic digital content represents only 3% of the Internet's overall content. But the good news is that crowd-sourcing is here to create significant change to the Arabic web. Though it's a concept that has been rarely applied successfully in the Arab region, the Taghreedat initiative has been able to leverage the application of crowd-sourcing in the region by rallying thousands of Arab online users to enrich and transform the Arabic web. With Taghreedat's unprecedented global collaborations with 5 of the world's top digital content players in the US: Twitter, Inc., TED, Storify, Wikimedia Foundation and Meedan on key Arabic digital content projects and the initiative's strong community of over 5,000 Arab volunteers from 31 world countries, the Arabic web is experiencing a paradigm shift and a whole new wave of crowd-sourcing thanks to Taghreedat. We are very excited to be showcasing such an inspiring story in the upcoming ArabNet in Riyadh."
Arabic digital content will be one of the main themes addressed at the ArabNet Riyadh conference, taking place at the Four Seasons Riyadh on November 21-21 and hosted by the Badir Technology Incubation Program, part of the King Abdulaziz University of Science and Technology. More than 50 expert speakers and 600 attendees will gather to discuss the latest trends and opportunities in the Saudi Arabian web and mobile business.
Arabic online video is one of the hot sectors in Saudi Arabia, which has the highest per capita daily consumption of YouTube in the world. Young Saudi production studios, like UTURN Entertainment and C3 Films are disrupting the media industry, releasingshows on YouTubethat are garnering more than 1 million views per episode.Abdullah Mando, CEO of UTURN, and Abdulaziz Al-Shalan, Marketing Manager of C3 Films, will be at ArabNet Riyadh to discuss monetization models for online video businesses as well as how to build and grow audiences and produce original and effective video content for web.
Similarly, the rapid uptake of tablets has also opened new opportunities for mobile content publishing and has increased demand for e-books. Global revenues from e-books are forecast to grow to $9.7bn by 2016, according to Juniper Research, and the percentage of revenues generated by publishing houses and book retailers from e-book sales is on the rise. In the Middle East, companies like Flagship Pro and Ertiqa areworking closely with publishers to ensure that Arabic books and content are available for Arabic tablet users. 70% of the titles in Rufoof Online, a digital library app developed by Flaghsip Pro, are in Arabic, and the company is working with English publishers to translate exclusive and original content into Arabic. The availability of these apps is opening new markets and possibilities for Arabic content developers and publishers which will be explored at ArabNet Riyadh by Badr Ward, CEO of Ertiqa, and Shadi Hassan, Founder and Managing Director of Flagship Pro, among others.
The growth in demand for content via mobile, be it apps, games or e-books is in turn leading to an increase in demand for mobile advertising. This year alone, global mobile ad spending is expected to rise 62% to $6.4bn. In the Middle East many clients are hesitant to venture into mobile advertising, but this is starting to change with the successes that mobile advertising campaigns are achieving. Wael AlFayez, Managing Director of Numu Multimedia, the digital arm of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, explains that the campaigns his company has run on mobile generated more than double the rates of engagement as web.
"We are in the process of educating the market on the importance of mobile and how it has changed the way we consume media. Saudi Arabia has one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world, which makes mobile the right tool for brands to reach their target audience," says AlFayez, who will be speaking at ArabNet Riyadh along with Wael Quader, CEO of Nuqoush Mobile Media Group among others.
In addition to the themes of Arabic content on web and mobile, ArabNet Riyadh will also explore the latest in e-commerce, social media, and gaming. The conference will also highlight the most promising Saudi and Arab entrepreneurs, who will compete in ArabNet's signature competitions, the Ideathon and Startup Demo, and have the chance to pitch their ideas and companies in front of investors and the media.
"There's no doubt that Saudi Arabia is now living a new beginning in terms of entrepreneurship, especialtoly in the fields of web and mobile, and I think this is the right time to encourage Saudi youth both financially and morally," says Faris AlRashid, Chairman of Oqal, an angel investor network based in Riyadh.
The Ideathon Competition, sponsored by Qualcomm is targeted at individuals with promising ideas for a web or mobile business, while the Startup Demo targets nascent digital companies with strong business potential.
Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/arabic-digital-content-booming-saudi-arabia-317587
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