Tag: Internet
GITEX Digital Strategies
It’s almost GITEX time and Alexander McNabb will, once again, be chairing the GITEX Digital Strategies Forum. The Forum takes place on Wednesday 15 October 2014 during GITEX Technology Week 2014 and will take delegates through global digital consumer trends, digital marketing strategy and planning, mobile marketing , digital CSR, one:one marketing and more. You’ll find the full agenda […]
Facebook rules, regs and crime
The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced a whitepaper on Facebook usage guidelines, terms and conditions this week, to a grateful press that reported on TRA ‘warnings’ to Facebook users. As usual, we ask ourselves the question; how relevant is this for brands online? The whitepaper is, in fact, a good, readable summary of Facebook […]
Plenty of content marketing opportunity for Middle East brands
With some 60 million Facebook users, 7 million Twitter users and some of the highest Youtube download rates in the world, it’s no secret that the Arab world has become a big online consumer of content. Social media has ceased to be the sole preserve of geeks and wealthy English-speaking college students and, today, the Middle […]
Is Arab content really a lost cause?
It’s no secret that the Arab world has lagged behind in content creation. Conference speakers have been decrying the lack of Arabic language content for years. According to various sources, Arabic language content accounts for less than 3% of the content on the web (1%, 2.5% and 3% have been quoted), despite the fact that […]
Saudi plans to regulate Youtube
The Saudi government is planning to monitor and regulate YouTube and other online channels, having this week entrusted the task to its General Commission for Audiovisual Media, established last year to regulate the broadcast industry. There has even been talk of issuing permits to Youtube subscribers, which would appear to signal the introduction of a […]
Flipboard and the future of content
It’s no secret that the Internet has radically changed the way we create, consume and share content and continues to do so. Spot On often talks about concepts such as disintermediation, the atomisation of communications, the social consumer and the pressure on all organisations to become publishers of content. It’s easy to spot the big […]
Taking a bite out of the CITC
‘Biting the hand that feeds IT’ is UK-based The Register’s amusing theme line, a reference to the IT news website’s irreverent editorial style, which often has harsh criticism for IT company announcements, spokespeople and other IT news. This week, Saudi Arabia’s English language newspaper the Arab News seems to have decided to do some biting of its own, running a […]
How ‘social’ was GITEX 2012?
The Middle East’s largest technology trade show, GITEX, took place at Dubai World Trade Centre last week, bringing an estimated 3,500 exhibitors from around the world together with more than 100,000 businessmen and IT professionals (estimates vary). That’s equivalent to about 20,000 visitors per day, plus more than 10,000 company representatives on stands each of […]
It’s Social Media Forum time again!
The Social Media Forum is to take place in Dubai next week and it’s already sold out. This is interesting news for those in the Middle East who thought we really didn’t want to listen to another word about social media and don’t ‘need another talking shop’. I must admit, we’ve been avoiding the term […]
The Freedom Meme
A new report from the University of Washington’s Project on Information Technology and Political Islam comes to the conclusion that social media played a central role in the events we have all come to call ‘The Arab Spring’. Ever since the events of early 2011 started to unfold around the region, there has been debate […]