News
Big data more important than ever as e-commerce market in MENA booms
The e-commerce industry has been growing dramatically in the Middle East lately with an average revenue of $39 billion in 2015; and a projected market size of $51 billion by 2017 – according to the latest research. This has been the main motive driving A15, the leading technology investor, to invest 2.5 million EGP in MENA Commerce, the region’s first big-data company in the e-commerce retail industry.
Big data is a space that hasn’t seen much activity in the region. The main premise is that it uses sophisticated analytics algorithms to analyze the enormous amounts of data currently available through for example consumer purchasing habits. “A15 is keen on investing in big data companies and believes there is much that we can learn about how we here in the region behave and in that lies an opportunity to make more informed decisions and generate greater returns not just for A15 and its companies but for the region,” said A15 CEO, Fadi Antaki.
Mena Commerce is a technology startup focusing on building a bridge between content and commerce. it is using big data to map out consumer behaviour and help e-commerce and traditional retailers target their consumers more effectively thus generate higher returns on their advertising spending. Their two flagship products ShopShopMe.com and AdRelated.com (patent-pending) cater to both ends of the spectrum: search and discovery. With around 40 team members, most of whom are in engineering and data science, MENA Commerce is building unique intellectual property out of MENA that can be used by clients around the world.
“Mena Commerce is tapping into a very lucrative and a fast growing area which is e-commerce. Being players ourselves in that area with strong experience, we saw an opportunity to add lots of value to the Mena Commerce team’s work.” Said A15’s CEO, Fadi Antaki.
Having supported and owned leading digital publishers, such as Arab Finance, Masrawy, and YallaKora and with Connect Ads still in its arsenal, A15 can certainly bring its previous publisher experience and digital advertising business experience to the equation to support Mena Commerce’s growth. “A15 has extensive digital publishing experience and a vast publishing network as well as Connect Ads’ digital agency power & leadership. Combine these two things and we can really accelerate Mena Commerce’s growth in the region.” Added Antaki.
“The investment by A15 will be instrumental in helping us scale faster, and work closely with other A15 companies especially Connect Ads as there is perfect synergy between us. The Middle East market is hungry for our services especially with the e-commerce boom we are witnessing.” Said Moustafa Mahmoud, CEO of Mena Commerce.
Egypt tops all the Arab countries transacting online with 15.2 million active buyers; along with UAE (6.8 million buyers), KSA (10.6 million buyers) & Kuwait (2.4 million buyers). In a report published last year by Payfort, it is estimated that Egypt’s e-commerce market will almost double in size reaching $2.7 billion by 2020, from $1.4 billion in 2014.
News
Putin, Obama war on social media starts with unfriend on Facebook
New stage of the cold war, is it?
The Social media war between Putin and Obama started with UnFriend, this is the action taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Facebook diplomacy with American president Barack Obama.
The unfriending comes after an official White House update about the possibility of a US-Syrian war. President Putin revealed that Obama’s updates about the Congressional debate on a possible war with Syria have annoyed him.
After unfriending, President Putin update status on profile “Something I should have done a long time ago”
Also, He said to Russia’s Pravda News Service “President Assad and I, we are the Facebook friends. We like the same pages, we share pictures of cute women and all that. Obama needs to lighten up on there, it’s not for serious stuff,”
President Obama’s latest posts about the possibility of the war in Syria have been reported by someone and he received a warning from Facebook that he will be prevented from posting on his profile for 24 hours.
He has also commented “Really, Putin needs to grow up. If he didn’t like that [post], he could have just hid it from his news feed instead of creating all this Facebook drama,”
JOE BIDEN “Vice President of the United States” announced to reports that President Obama has signed into his Twitter account to unfollow Putin.
The turmoil generated between Putin and Obama over their dispute on the Syrian crisis. Expanded to reach the social networks
Putin and Obama on social Networks
The question now is, are we witnessing a new stage of the cold war between the two countries, will they continue the war online instead of the military tactics and old spy war?
It’s obvious that social media is really changing the game in everything, and now it’s taking over on a very high level.
Keep an eye on Digital Boom and we will keep you posted with more news and updates on the cold war and even more…
News
Amr Diab Gets Hacked on Twitter
Amr Diab’s Facebook page has announced that his twitter account has been hijacked by anonymous and now tweeting political.
Update: Amr Diab’s Facebook Page announced that “Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been restored successfully and you can follow Amr’s tweets normally now”
Amr Diab got hacked on Twitter
On Thursday 9th of Jan, Amr Diab’s Facebook page announced that Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been hacked by anonymous and now tweeting politics!
Amr Abdul-Basset Abdul-Azeez Diab (born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of pop music. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle East Artist, three times: 1998 for the album “Nour El Ain”, 2002 for the album “Aktrr Wahid Byhbak 2001” and 2007 for the album “El Lillady”. Amr Diab also won The African Music Awards 2009, Big Apple Music Awards; Life Achievements Awards: Best Singer of The Year in 2009, and Best Male Act in African Music Awards 2010.
He is known as the Father of Mediterranean Music He has created his own style which is often termed “Mediterranean Music” or “Mediterranean Sound”, a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.
In The Mediterranean in Music, David Cooper and Kevin Dawe referred to his music as “the new breed of Mediterranean music”.According to author Michael Frishkopf, Amr Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially in his international hit, “Nour El Ain”.
In his analysis of The Very Best of Amr Diab album, Victor W. Valdivia of All music said: “His music melded traditional Arabic sounds and textures with Western rhythms and instruments. The mesh was dubbed Mediterranean music, and The Very Best of Amr Diab displays Diab’s superb skill in creating it.”
In 1997, he won three awards at the Annual Arabic Festival: one for Best Video, for Best Song, and for Best Artist of the Year. Diab received a Triple Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain and a World Music Award in Monaco.
After the success of the previously shared overall analysis of Sherine’s new album “Ana Keter” and her social media presence, we decided to fulfill your requests with more details and additional insights.
The report is from Jan 15 through Jan 31, 2014; however, starting Feb, we noticed that Sherine’s team has enhanced and developed how they engage with fans on Facebook.
Still, there’s more to do; please review the slides below to know what exactly they are missing with recommendations.
Check out the report:
Key take-outs in 15 days after the launch:
- Album gained 11 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube
- YouTube Channel subscribers boosted by 90K subscribers in 15 days out of 127K total subscribers overtime
- Buzz reached 15K tweets/RTs since the launch on Twitter
- How do people talk about the album/Sherine on Twitter?
- People are sharing songs from YouTube & SoundCloud
- +90% positive sentiment on Twitter
- Sherine’s Twitter account is excellent at spreading the news about the album’s success.
- People are tweeting the song’s lyrics.
- Sarcastic tweets about Sherine & few songs (regular) - Almost zero negativity about the album
- Album teasers on Facebook created credibility for Sherine’s page, reflected in the page results after the album’s launch in the next 15 days with 92K Interactions & 312K New Likes.
- The album received tremendous engagement on the launching date of Jan 15. However, no posts for four days after the launch negatively affected the interactions.
Recommendations:
Sherine Abdel Wahab’s Facebook page would have received double or maybe triple new likes and interactions if the improved posts’ quality; please find below the points taken:
- Long updates with no extra value-added will lead to losing your fans’ interest
- The text-only format isn’t preferred, as it is well-known that they generate less reach than other content (Facebook announcement)
- A call to action is essential to generate leads & increase engagement
- Each post has to have its visual, audio, or video so you can attract/engage your audiences
- Understand the situation and act upon it, always be relevant to the time and avoid posting irrelevant content at the wrong time.
- Revise the tone of voice in future activities.
To recap - Overall performance is average to good - Enhance your content formatting - Improve the tone of voice on all networks - Be creative to engage your fans better - Be Consistent - Start your SoundCloud account.
-
Startups9 years ago3 Creative Egyptian Women Who Master E-commerce
-
News10 years ago11 Talented Egyptian Photographers on Instagram
-
Campaigns8 years agoVodafone Egypt Brings Generations Together, Unlocks 4G Power
-
Marketing9 years agoWhich categories will suffer most from increased prices in Egypt?
-
Apps8 years agoRadio Garden Live Map of The Globe’s Radio Stations
-
News8 years agoTop 10 Egyptian Fashionistas to Follow on Instagram
-
Campaigns8 years ago7 Big Stats That Show Which Ramadan Advertisements Resonated Most
-
Opinion9 years agoF*** Being a Founder, Be a Follower