Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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At the end of March, it was announced that the largest e-commerce company in the Middle East and North Africa, Souq.com, would be acquired by Amazon for nearly $600 million. This was unusual: when Amazon enters a new geographic market, it typically does so by launching its existing platform and investing a lot of money to grow it. Instead, Amazon—apparently impressed by Souq.com’s management team, its technology, and its ability to navigate a complicated region—decided on a different strategy.
A week after the announcement, at the Step Conference in Dubai, one of the most popular startup gatherings in the region, it felt as if lightning had struck. Over 2,000 aspiring entrepreneurs filled the arena, standing room only, for a panel with Souq.com founder Ronaldo Mouchawar. Mouchawar, a native of Aleppo, Syria, spent over an hour onstage with his cofounders and lead investor, explaining in painstaking detail what it was like to build an e-commerce giant. In 2005, when Souq.com launched, few in the Arab world were shopping digitally, fewer still were willing to use a credit card online, and examples of successful tech startups were hard to find. Now, Mouchawar underscored to his rapt audience, things were different.
A few months earlier, Careem—the region’s fast-growing ride-sharing company—had been valued by venture capitalists at over $1 billion. To those at the conference, these two recent successes seemed to signal a turning point in the Arab world, made possible by local access to technology and a rising middle class. One young woman, an aspiring entrepreneur taking copious notes on her laptop, told me, “I can do this. I will do this.”
Of course, the challenges in the region remain very real, among them poverty, war, and the breakdown of political and economic institutions. Israel has a well-established technology sector, but in the Arab Middle East—outside the United Arab Emirates and its leading economic center, Dubai—the legal and regulatory system is at best cumbersome to navigate, and more often unpredictable and inconsistent. Historic political disputes and security concerns are issues as well. Educational infrastructure, despite relatively heavy spending, is not adequate for developing a 21st-century workforce.
Yet something encouraging is happening. Everywhere in Dubai, young people gather, checking their smart devices. You can see them walking the sandy corniche by the sea, enjoying the park-like beauty of the recently completed canal, or sitting at any stylish café. Two generations ago it was a small trade and pearling center surrounded by desert, but today this city on the Persian Gulf has grown into a hub from which tech startups with roots across the Middle East look toward rising markets to the east, west, north, and south. Souq.com and Careem are but two of thousands. And, like Amazon, global tech players including Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn have all been expanding their presence here significantly.
A different story from the Middle East: entrepreneurs building an Arab tech economy
It's a lengthy article but it is rather interesting.
A week after the announcement, at the Step Conference in Dubai, one of the most popular startup gatherings in the region, it felt as if lightning had struck. Over 2,000 aspiring entrepreneurs filled the arena, standing room only, for a panel with Souq.com founder Ronaldo Mouchawar. Mouchawar, a native of Aleppo, Syria, spent over an hour onstage with his cofounders and lead investor, explaining in painstaking detail what it was like to build an e-commerce giant. In 2005, when Souq.com launched, few in the Arab world were shopping digitally, fewer still were willing to use a credit card online, and examples of successful tech startups were hard to find. Now, Mouchawar underscored to his rapt audience, things were different.
A few months earlier, Careem—the region’s fast-growing ride-sharing company—had been valued by venture capitalists at over $1 billion. To those at the conference, these two recent successes seemed to signal a turning point in the Arab world, made possible by local access to technology and a rising middle class. One young woman, an aspiring entrepreneur taking copious notes on her laptop, told me, “I can do this. I will do this.”
Of course, the challenges in the region remain very real, among them poverty, war, and the breakdown of political and economic institutions. Israel has a well-established technology sector, but in the Arab Middle East—outside the United Arab Emirates and its leading economic center, Dubai—the legal and regulatory system is at best cumbersome to navigate, and more often unpredictable and inconsistent. Historic political disputes and security concerns are issues as well. Educational infrastructure, despite relatively heavy spending, is not adequate for developing a 21st-century workforce.
Yet something encouraging is happening. Everywhere in Dubai, young people gather, checking their smart devices. You can see them walking the sandy corniche by the sea, enjoying the park-like beauty of the recently completed canal, or sitting at any stylish café. Two generations ago it was a small trade and pearling center surrounded by desert, but today this city on the Persian Gulf has grown into a hub from which tech startups with roots across the Middle East look toward rising markets to the east, west, north, and south. Souq.com and Careem are but two of thousands. And, like Amazon, global tech players including Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn have all been expanding their presence here significantly.
A different story from the Middle East: entrepreneurs building an Arab tech economy
It's a lengthy article but it is rather interesting.
