Mobile Payment Systems

The below article was published in @QatarToday Magazine - Feb 2012 issue.

The mobile network is evolving at a lightning speed and will thrive over coming years. Recently, introduction of mobile payment systems (MPS) has gained momentum and a greater attention from telecoms and financial institutions. Mobile phones are looked upon as an appropriate medium for supplementing existing payments and settlement procedures.

The cashless society is coming: American consumers now carry more than 750 million credit cards, while paper currency production continues to decline.

The phrase “mobile payment system” can apply to various mechanisms for initiating and accepting transactions using a mobile device.

According to Forrester Research MPS can be divided into two categories: -

• Payment systems that utilize a mobile network to initiate or authorize a transaction.

• Contactless systems that use a mobile phone in lieu of a traditional credit card.

In other words, mobile payment systems apply to: -

• How consumers pay for goods

• How merchants can process transactions.

Lets us look at some of the emerging mobile payment systems in the market that allow accepting credit card payments on mobile: -

Square

Started By – the San Francisco-based mobile technology firm is a startup from Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame.

How does this work - Square enables users to accept credit and debit purchases by swiping cards through a small dongle that plugs into their iPhone, iPad or Android audio jack. The startup has already released software for iPhone and Andriod devices.

Fees - Square charges a fee of 2.75 % on each swiped transaction, no contracts, monthly fees or hidden costs. Users who select to enter credit card numbers manually must pay 3.5 % and 15 cents per transaction. Service will only deposit up to $1,000 per week into the merchant’s account, the rest is deposited in 30 days.

GoPayment

Started By - It is a partnership between popular iPhone accessory maker Mophie and Intuit. Intuit is the company that provides business and financial management solutions and the creator of QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax.

How does this work - the pocket-size GoPayment reader plugs into the audio jack of any supported smart phone or tablet and supports the iOS Android and BlackBerry operating systems. Users can swipe cards or manually enter card data. GoPayment processes and authorizes payments in seconds, and funds are then immediately deposited into the merchant’s business bank account. Its 4 million QuickBooks users can sync GoPayment transactions with the most recent versions of QuickBooks for PC and Mac

Fees – Merchants who process less than $1000 a month need to pay 2.7% rate to swiped transactions and a 3.7% rate to manual transactions. A high-volume option, priced at $12.95 a month charges a 1.7 % fee on swiped transactions and 2.7% on manual entries

There are a few more payment systems like Pay Anywhere and Verifone’s PAYware Mobile, which work on a similar mechanism of attaching a card reader to your mobile.

Contactless Payment Technology called Near Field Communication (NFC) enables mobile payments by tapping your phone on the payment machine.

Google Wallet is an app that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to make secure paments by tapping the phone on any PayPass-enabled terminal. Google Wallet being an app can store credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift card. Mobile phones will automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points when a customer taps the phone on a terminal.

In the Middle East region, NFC mobile payments have already been introduced in UAE following a collaboration agreement between Etisalat, MasterCard and Research in Motion. People can pay for their purchase of cinema tickets, and in the future metro tickets, just by tapping their phone at a payment terminal. Nokia has also introduced the NFC enabled phones in UAE for the users.

As with introduction of a new technology, there are security concerns that need to be addressed prior to its commercialization. Merchants that use a personal mobile device as part of accepting payments from customers may not have direct control on the security of the environment in which the device is used. Some merchants feel this is the most convenient way of receiving payments, while some customers feel this is very insecure; any merchant can attach a customized scanning device on their mobile to collect the card info.

London 2012 Olympics will be the first global event where mobile payment systems using NFC will be on display. It could take years before many other merchants adopt this payment mechanism and customers start getting comfortable to use it. You never know next time paying at the local grocery store or buying a coffee with a smart phone may be a regular thing.

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 2

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East.

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Part 2 cover Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan

Jordan 

Youtube and Facebook take the lead in the searches. Saraya a popular news website is also among the top 10 searches. 

Gaddafi is a most sought after person on Google Jordan. 4Share a file sharing site is a popular in Jordan.

Interestingly Chrome browser is a among the top 10 rising keyword searches.

Egypt

Egypt has the highest number of Internet Users in the MENA region (20,136,000 as of 30 June 2011, according to internetworldstats.com). 

With all the political action happening in Egypt, no doubt ‘youm7’; a news website is among the list of popular searches.  Terms like ‘

Tahrir Square

’ and ‘Revolution of 25 January’ are among the top rising searches in 2011. Youtube and Facebook remain in the top 10 searched keywords.

Hossini Mubarak remains the most searched person on Google followed by Wael Ghonim one of the key activist in the Egyptian revolution.

Lebanon 

The country has internet usage penetration of 29%. Most of the searched terms are in English language. ‘Twitter’ is also appearing among the top 10 searched words. 

Applications like ‘whtsapp’ and ‘ebuddy’ are popular searches. 

Lots of users are taking interest in searching for the keyword ‘Syria’, assuming out of interest in the current political situation.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series

Click here to read about Middle East Google Trends for 2010

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 1

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East. 

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. 

Part 2 covers - Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan 

UAE 

The country has the highest Internet Penetration rate of 69 % (via - according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East. Most of the search terms are in English. After ‘Dubai’, ‘Facebook’ remains the most search term. In the rising searches, ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘Dubizzle’ are amongst the top 5 searched terms.

Cricket and related websites like ‘cricinfo’ are amongst the top emerging searches, giving credit to the world cup held this year.  

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia – The country with the highest number of Internet Users (11,400,000 as of 30 June 2011 according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East region. Most of the searched terms are in Arabic, which shows popularity of the language in the online world. ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’ remain popular searches amongst the internet users. Photos and Game are some of the most searched categories in Saudi Arabia. Spongebob and Twitter are also popular keywords among the Saudi users. With the recent investment of $300 million by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Twitter, the website’s popularity will surge in the country. 

Oman

Oman – The country has an internet penetration rate of 48.4%. Facebook and Youtube are popular searches in the country. Al Sablah seems to be popular community forum in Oman, which appear in the existing and rising search trends. Hotmail is also among the rising searches in the country. Elakiri Community is another forum listed in the rising searches. 

Click here to view Google Trends for 2010.

Online Reputation Management - A Middle East Perspective

The below article was published in Qatar Today, August 2011 issue, highlighting how few brands in Middle East have started thinking about online reputation management. The article highlights issues faced by brands who completely ignore the importance of monitoring their online presence. Click on the below pics to continue reading.

"Text Version"

Online Reputation Management

On 17th June 2010 @sandeepgeetla tweeted the below rumour which led to a slide in the ICICI shares by 3.5 % in the intra day trading hours, however within hours the stock price recovered due to prompt action by the bank.

@gulpanag ICICI committed 3k crore fraud in US. Sebi fined 1 billion dollar on ICICI bank as the news goes..

ICICI bank is known to monitor 3-5k tweets per day via its Twitter handler @icici_care. The bank also monitors online conversations on Facebook, Blogs and other social mediums, to help stop rumors.

The bank responded to the user on twitter as follows:-

@sandeepgeetla These r baseless rumours abt ICICI Bank, request u to not pay heed to them & also not spread them further…”

ICICI has gone ahead and filed a complaint against the person with the cyber crime cell of the police and market watchdog SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)

This is just an example of how a false rumor could damage your brand’s reputation online.

But, how many brands in GCC monitor Social Media Conversations?

The person may have had a bad experience with your brand; however there is a possibility that he or she was never heard. However, customers have found the web to share the experience with people.

There are many groups on Facebook, where customers share their experiences with other potential bank customers, which do influence choices to an extent. Many people resort to share their personal experience about anything on the web as it is a feasible medium to voice their opinion. This makes many brands vulnerable to online abuse, as some of these opinions may be rumors, which further emphasizes the need to have online monitoring tools.

You can use some of the below listed tools which are available online for free:-

Blog Monitoring - BlogPulse – is a blog search engine with several complementary tools such as Trend Search and Conversion Tracker that analyzes the data it collects.

Twitter Monitoring - Monitter – A real-time Twitter monitor for up to three keywords at a time.

Other Tools - Google Alerts – Your keyword search results are sent via e-mail for keyword mentions in news, web, blogs, video and groups categories.

Digimond – an online competitive intelligence solution company – has forecasted that by 2013, 4 million SMEs will be using online reputation platform to monitor their brands. According to Digimond 58% of the executives believe that risk reputation should be addressed by the management, however only 15% of them monitor it.

Recently there have been similar incidences in the online world in Qatar. Many Qtel users retorted against the poor customer service of the telecom company on Twitter using the hashtag #qtelfail. Qtel instantly responded to customer complains on Twitter to address issues.

I personally witnessed a change in the customer service of Qtel when I tweeted them about my Internet issue. I was called back by a service representative to understand my issue and a technician was at my home within few hours.

Recently Arabian Business reported that Qatar Airways was facing a series of complains from customers that claim to be local nationals about its services on Twitter using hashtag #qatarairwaysfail.

What is the Impact of such online posts? One bad customer experience would cost your brand many others.

Does the brand monitor these tweets/posts? It could be competitor brand spreading the rumor.

Many organizations have Internal Communication Departments who monitor print media for news but discount online conversations. What can a brand do to minimize the impact?

- Have a communications team to monitor online conversations and tackle rumors/complaints.

- Hire a PR/Marketing agency that can monitor the web 24x7.

- Have a strong e-Marketing team that can create a positive perception of your brand online.

- A negative review/complain demands special attention. Post public responses to apologize and try to win back the customer. You can privately message the reviewer to get detailed feedback.

Negative comments about your brand can hang an albatross around your neck if they appear frequently in online searches. A positive comment about your brand by clients is traditionally the best source of new business; online forums and recently sites like twitter and facebook act as a powerful word-of-mouth. Having an online presence is a must but tackling rumors/complains is a challenge. Brands will have to bear the brunt of online conversations if they continue to ignore this medium. Online conversations will make or break customer relations in the future as more and more people seek feedback from peers on the web.

Financial Institutions and Online Media - finding the right hook

The below article was published in Qatar Today magazine - July 2011 issue. The article summarizes various initiatives taken by banks to adopt Online Media to communicate with their customers. Click on the below image to contiue reading.

 

***TextVersion ***

Today most of the financial services companies are on a recovery mode and looking for optimistic signs in their books. While the financial pundits predict the possibility of economic recovery, I believe listening to your customers is what’s missing in most of the companies. Many financial and non financial companies are busy implementing what they want to but not what the customer needs.

In the era of Internet, Financial Institutions need to cautiously but firmly make place in the Online Media world to interact with the customer. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn are some of the many sites which can act as agents for these companies to spread their message.

Many banks have presence on Facebook, but lack of transactional capability may not attract customers to become a fan or member of that particular page. Having an information page about the products and services would be a good way to start with, but may not be immensely popular with the customers. Tapping Facebook will require banks to come up with a tricky formula of entertainment, sales and information in addition to providing a secure environment. Yet Facebook’s urge to go public with its user data may be discouraging for many financial intuitions to associate themselves with this website. To meet the legal and compliance requirements would be another horrendous task.

During my research, I came across an application on Facebook that allows users to perform financial transactions - Fiserv's My Money, which is now only available to credit unions, and may be offered to banks in the near future. Facebook users download the application, which helps them find and join a credit union, view account histories and balances, and make transfers.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, ING DIRECT and First American Bank are among the many financial institutions using Twitter for marketing. Twitter is a tool which can be used to directly interact with your customers and inform them about the services. The online reply facility on Twitter can help a company obtain feedback or resolve customer issues.

The National Bank of Australia has managed to effectively use Twitter as a tool to deal with customer complaints and enquires. The bank gets 30 million calls a year on its Call Centre channel and Twitter may be an alternative to it.

Twitter can help banks build long term relationships and give more personal feel to it.

1. Reaching customers.

Public websites hold the transaction capability and remain the primary form of communication for the banks with customers. Increased communication and transparency, would help banks gain customer confidence and trust.  Having online presence would allow your customers to evaluate and discuss the bank’s brand and offerings. Direct feedback from customers would help banks improve those offerings and brand image. HSBC Direct, a U.K based bank uses its interactive website to get and publish customer feedback and discuss community issues. It uses blogs, Facebook and Twitter to interact with "Generation C," or the “Connected, Communicating, Content-centric, Generation."

2. Reducing costs.

Online communication would help the bank reduce costs significantly. Selling products, cross selling products to existing customers would help justify the online presence. Twitter as a communication medium is being seen as an alternative to Call Centers. It may not replace call centers but definitely help in optimizing call center resources. Usage of new technologies can help cut branch operations cost; for example, Deutsche Bank in Germany uses video chat for interacting with customers, thus reducing customer dependence on expensive channels like branches.

As I said before, financial institutions need to be Cautious with their presence in Social Media. One of the possible threats could be a fraudster posing as a bank employee and asking customer for credentials by setting up a similar profile. Online squatter could register themselves on behalf of financial institutions on social media sites and then negotiate with the companies to buy them back. Alternatively, phishing attacks are anyways looming on the Internet and you may be redirected to a site where there is possibility of compromising your personal details.

Banks are experimenting with this space but are yet to come out with a successful working model. Expecting a ROI on spend is not the way forward, as Social Media is still in its adolescence trying to develop such a model. This is just another form of communication tool available to reach to your customers which will ultimately in long term bring the dollars.

Boss we need to Socialize

The below article was published in Qatar Today's April 2011 issue. Click on the below pics to read.

Text Version

*****Boss - We need to Socialize…*****

The last conversation with your boss on adoption of Social Media may have left you stranded and you may be wondering how to convince him/her. You may conclude that the person is rigid not open to new ideas. A close minded person is difficult to convince and it requires strong will to change ones thought process. According to marketing guru Seth Godin, “a closed-minded worldview doesn't mean you're stupid, it means that you are selling yourself and your colleagues and your community short”.

Your boss is not stupid, probably ignorant. One of the best way to change perceptions and open a close mind is to present data in an appealing manner.

The adoption of Social Media in the Middle East for commercial purpose has been encouraging however it still needs to reach an advanced level. Senior management is still puzzled by the question – “Why the company should explore the Social Media route to reach their customers?”

Here are some tips that could help you to sell Social Media to your senior management:-

Show Them Facts and Figures

A survey conducted on Media consumption & habits of MENA Internet users in 2010 by Spot On PR firm based in Dubai showed that

- Social Networking is the second most popular activity carried out by Internet users after email.

- 32% of all Middle East & North Africa Internet users surveyed, bought products or services online

Spot On PR has reported that the Mena Population on Facebook has reached 17.3 million as of August 2010.

According to InsideFacebook.com, a leading source of news and analysis on Facebook, informed that Arabic language version of Facebook was the fastest growing language as of August 2010.

Blogs: Over 5 million blogs are tracked by Technorati, the “Bible” of Blogs with 600,000 being corporate blogs (Technorati)

Keeping up with the Competition

The hype of Social media would have caught your boss’s attention and there is a possibility that he/she may have seen some social media work at other corporations.

This means your boss is likely in a position to have a conversation on commercial aspects of social media. You just need to develop an online strategy that fits the organization’s business objectives. Your boss might just be looking for someone to take the lead. A survey conducted by IQPC in 2010 showed that 80% of corporate executives consider Social Media as an important aspect of the online communication strategies.

Customer Feedback Online

Every year companies spend millions on customer service surveys. This helps the executives to get an insight on what is their customer thinking.

When you go online try searching “your company name + bad experience”, you would be surprised at the results. Unfortunately, this freely available data online is overlooked by companies. ICICI bank is known to monitor 3-5k tweets per day via its Twitter handler @icici_care. The bank also monitors online conversations on Facebook, Blogs and other social mediums, to help stop rumors.

Listening to your customers creates strong relationships and helps you develop the right products. This would eventually lead to monetization.

Instant Response

Social Media not only gives you customer feedback online, but gives you the opportunity to respond back to your customer online. Many companies in Qatar like Qtel, Virgin Mobile give instant response to customer queries on a social network like Twitter. Customers are keen to interact with their brands online. A study conducted on MENA Twitter habits by Spot-On PR in Feb 2010 gave the following results: -

- 50% of the surveyed had purchased a product or service as a result of Twitter

- 88% of Twitter users recommend products / services

- 65% of respondents were interested in receiving special offers & coupons from brands on Twitter

Here is an opportunity for many for you to sell these stats to your boss which would help you build a case to monetize the investment in online media.

One step at a time

If your boss is partially convinced and asks you to give him a lead, start with maintaining an online blog. It is not that difficult to move some corporate offline content online. Recommend a person who has the passion for writing and can update the blog on a regular basis.

A few more reasons: -

Using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media - Get your website among the top 10 searched items on Google, which leads to more traffic and visibility of your brand.

Reputation Management – Customers are discussing about your brand online, whether you like to listen or not.

Customer Service – Twitter, Facebook and various other social networks are becoming prime source of direct interaction with customers.

According to the Internetworldstats.com the Middle East has 63 million Internet users. So, if just 50% of those are affected by brand recommendations online, that’s 32 .5 million people are reachable through online mode of communication. Internet is here to stay and grow big; however, it’s your choice to ride the wave or stay onshore to make a difference.

Blackberry may not be banned in UAE

This is what we all would like to hear, don’t we? To put things in perspective, UAE and Saudi Arabia are not banning the BlackBerry device produced by Research in Motion Limited (RIM). But instead it is the BlackBerry mobile services like e-mail and text messaging by October 11, 2010.

The reason for this ban is a dispute between the UAE and RIM concerning RIM's encrypted data system. The system makes government monitoring of data more difficult. The problem for RIM is that the other GCC countries may follow suit, which will have a major business impact for the company. India has also been negotiating with RIM to access the encrypted information being exchanged on Blackberry devices.

Many countries including India claim that such moves are driven by national security. Many will suggest that this is simply an excuse to block data, but others suggest that this is a viable excuse to limit data. There can be a business reason to block the service, citing the possibility that service providers in UAE may come out with a similar service for the subscribers.

UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority noted that "certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the U.A.E." Countries like Qatar have come forward and have announced that the service providers will not block the Blackberry service. Don't know if they also feel the security threat or not?

RIM will have to rethink its position on not sharing the data information, as potential business may be lost. UAE and Saudi Arabia has around 500,000 and 400,000 blackberry users respectively. Assuming the remaining GCC countries may comprise of another million users; RIM can’t afford to lose so many users while they are expected to unveil the new BlackBerry 9800 at a press event on 03 Aug 2010. U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion (RIMM.O) fell 1.6 percent in early trading on Monday as the ban news spread across the world.

When discussing UAE’s adamancy with RIM to provide access to the data, it’s worth highlighting the fact that it had unsuccessfully attempted to install a application, rumored to be a spyware, on the devices of Etisalat users in 2009, informing the user’s that the patch would enhance the performance. The region has always attempted to block websites, which pose threat to the existing regimes.

Could this ban impact RIM’s business? The rumors are that RIM is already in talks with the Middle East governments to have a work around. There are more than a million Blackberry users in GCC and if even half of them change mobile devices, there could be major loss for RIM.

Are Banks Monitoring Conversations Online?

On 17th June @ sandeepgeetla tweeted the below rumour which led to a slide in the ICICI shares by

3.5 % in the intra day trading hours, however within hours the stock price recovered due to prompt action by the bank. This info was published in Business Standard on 24th June.

ICICI bank is known to monitor 3-5k tweets per day via its Twitter handler @icici_care. The bank also monitors online conversations on Facebook, Blogs and other social mediums, to help stop rumors.

The bank responded to the user on twitter as follows:-

@sandeepgeetla These r baseless rumours abt ICICI Bank, request u to not pay heed to them & also not spread them further…”

ICICI has gone ahead and filed a complaint against the person with the cyber crime cell of the police and market watchdog SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)

How about the banks in GCC – do they monitor conversations online? Some of the banks that are active on Twitter in GCC are: -

• @DubaiBankAE
• @arabbankgroup
• @rakbanklive
• @ithmaarbank – Bahrain
• @Gulf_bank - Kuwait

@Rakbanklive is interactive and they do listen to customer complaints/feedback. But, how many banks in GCC monitor Social Media Conversations?

Check the screen shot below taken from a popular forum in UAE, where a customer is complaining about a bad experience with a bank : -

The person may have had a bad experience with the bank but may be was never heard. However, he has found the web to share his experience with people. 

What is the Impact of such online posts.....

• One bad customer experience would cost the bank many others
• Does the bank know about this post?
• Is it a competitor bank spreading the rumor?

There are many groups on Facebook, where customers share their experiences with other potential bank customers, which does influence choices to an extent. Many people resort to share their personal experience about anything on the web as it is a feasible medium to voice their opinion. This makes many bank's vulnerable to online abuse, as some of these opinions may be rumors, proving that bank's need to have online monitoring tools.

Many banks have Internal Communication Departments who monitor print media for news but discount online conversations. What can a bank do to minimize the impact?

• Have a communications team to monitor online conversations and tackle rumors/complaints
• Hire a PR agency that can monitor the web 24x7
• Have a strong e-Marketing team that can create a positive perception of your brand online

Having an online presence is a must but tackling rumors/complaints is a challenge. The banks will have to bear the brunt of online conversations if they continue to ignore this medium. Online conversations will make or break customer relations in the future as more and more people seek feedback from peers on the web.

Middle East Leaders on Social Media

The leaders in the Middle East have realized that Web/Social Media are one of the potential mediums to reach their people. Some of the leading personalities in the region are Jordan's Queen Rania, Sheikh Mohammed from UAE.

Recently Egyptian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei (231,462 fans) overtook Queen Rania (207,666) on the total number of followers on Facebook as per an article in Jersusalam Post. As per the article ElBaradei is a potential future leader and challenger to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak according to the article.

Some of the other leading political personalities in the region on Facebook are: -

King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud - 16,045 fans

Muammar al-Gaddafi - 751 fans

President Mohamed Hosny Mubarak - 11,932 fans

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum - 172,202 fans

Some of the above leaders are active on Twitter, which is more like an Information Network than a Social Network, proving that internet is a very influential form of communication.

Time will tell how the leaders will harness the potential of these websites. The fact that Facebook has more subscribers in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries than the number of newspapers circulated in the region is further encouraging for the leaders to be present on these websites.

Facebook Penetration Rate in Middle East

UAE has the highest Facebook penetration rate followed by Qatar in the Middle East as per the data released by Facebakers. Saudi Arabia has the highest number of Facebook users but the penetration rate is very low.

The users in Qatar are growing rapidly and overall in the Middle East. Users in UAE have grown by 11 % and Qatar by 8% in the last 6 months. This illustrates the Social Media boom in the region.

Iraq also has a decent penetration rate considering its conditions, and this show the willingness of people to communicate with each other.

Male population dominate Facebook in the Middle East with a total of 4.3 million users and Females amount 2.5 million, almost half of the male users.

Interestingly, Iceland has the highest Facebook penetration in the world :)

Threat to Social Media in Middle East

This is the Part 2 of the post Death of Social Media. I decided to name it as above to highlight potential threats to this popular communication medium in the Middle East. Social Media is vibrant and booming in the region but the possibility of its sudden death cannot be overlooked. The political sensitivity and formation of agendas against the existing regimes has provoked many governments in the region to block popular social media sites.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) plays an important role in blocking/filtering these websites. In its role as a licensed ISP and in response to customer requests, ISPs have a clear policy that aims to prevent damage to the values of the community from harmful material on websites.

Interestingly enough, the blocked site message on Etisalat says “If you would like the classification on this site to be reviewed, please fill in and submit the Feed Back Form.” At least an opportunity to appeal, don’t know how many of them may have been heard though.

Below is a country wise summary of blocked social media websites and some figures. The information may vary as countries may decide to block/unblock the websites anytime.

Qatar

- According to one user of Qatar Living, popular site "Tagged" has been blocked by QTEL in 2009.

- Has got 265,000 Facebook users

UAE

- Etisalat banned Orkut.com in 2007 upon orders from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

- The UAE also has a ban on a photo sharing website called Flickr ,

- Youtube is filtered and some of the videos are blocked

- Some popular blogs listed on Blogger like Secret Dubai are also blocked

- Rumors of blocking Facebook or Twitter are occasionally discussed on local forums and make rounds in the market. Many users joined a group called “Say no to blocking Facebook” to show their support last year.

- 1.2 million Facebook users

Iran

- Twitter, another popular and rapidly growing social-networking tool, also has been filtered out in Iran.

- Blogging websites like Blogger and Wordpress may not be blocked but a particular blog that may offend the officials is blacklisted.

- Iran Internet Service Providers Blocked Facebook in 2009 amid fears of users discussing about the most controversial Iranian Elections.

- Local social networking site Baltatarin.com is filtered

Egypt

- They blocked the website of the leading opposition party called Kefaya – Egyptian movement for change, in 2008.

- 2.3 million Facebook users

- Has highest number of Arabic Websites in the region

Syria

- Syria has taken the lead in blocking Facebook. The government feared that Israelis are enlisting on the Syrian Networks on the website. This was reported in Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir on 19 November 2007.

- Youtube and Facebook is blocked

Saudi Arabia

- Metacafe Partially Blocked

- Flickr and Orkut blocked

- Access to some of the popular blogs like Saudi Jeans is occasionally restricted

- 1.5 million Face Book users

- 2nd highest country after Egypt to have max. numbers Arabic Websites

- As per a recent survey by IQPC - this is the prime market for Digital Marketing tactics in 2010

Just imagine a hypothetical situation where the ISPs decide to block all the popular Social Networking sites in the region… down goes all the hype about Social Media.

The ad-spend in UAE was approximately 1.46 billion for 2009. Social media would form approximately 15% of this total spend. We know who would take the first financial hit…

-Marketing Agencies would suffer a major blow, as they would have lost a considerable amount of revenue in the form ad-spend.

-Many companies who have diverted funds to Social Media would not take any chances and marketing strategies built around this medium would go down the drain.

- People who interact with their friends/families would be frustrated, as social media has been one of the prime communication medium for them.

Most of the countries in the region block Skype and other VOIP services. As far as freedom of speech and press is considered, United Arab Emirates scores highest marks in the region for being quite liberal but it has a long way to go.

Recent alliance of Facebook with Connect Ads shows the confidence level of the social media sites in this region. I am a great fan of this medium and would like to see this thrive in the region.

Users in Gulf countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are worried that their authorities could follow suit after some countries have blocked these websites. So much for the political chaos in the countries….that the new medium of communication has to suffer.

Death of Social Media in Middle East - Part 1

Social Networking in the Middle East is a completely different living thing, that has some how slithered into our life. The approach to social media from a commercial point of view needs to be fundamentally different from the global trends, which may not work here.

Past few years marketers have been trying to convince the Senior Management of their respective companies to allocate more budgets for Online Marketing, in which they have partially succeeded. The sudden buzz about Social Media has definitely helped the cause but most of the companies in Middle East still feel that sheer presence of their brand on Twitter and Facebook completes the cycle.

Social media" implies a broad range of topics and has several different connotations. Social media may refer to a combination of various elements on the Internet, for example, blogs, forums, vlogs, video sharing sites, dating sites, picture sharing sites etc. Some of the many forms that Social Media can take include instant messengers, blogging, music sharing, wikis, podcasts etc.

Marketers may have actively engaged in one of the above Social Media form at least once. The lack of engagement with the customer in these online forms can lead to severe issues, which is currently a major hurdle for the brands in Middle East. Majority of them manage to create a Facebook group or a Twitter profile, but they don’t have a clue on what to do with them.

Do you listen to your customers online? How many companies have a team monitoring their brand on the internet? Once you are online you need to be there forever; this is a continuous engagement process.

If a customer writes a letter to a newspaper editor, most of the companies in Middle East have a corporate communication department to address the customer complains. If the same customer posts an issue on an internet forum the issue is never seen escalated to the company, but the brand damage stakes are much more higher due to the viral nature of internet. If you need to research on the market trends, monitor the local forums. Customers are giving their feed back on these forums at no cost and there is a huge opportunity to get insights. Most of the companies are busy extracting email of users and then bombarding their accounts with their latest offers. I hate some of the Twitter accounts who fill my twitstream with their latest product offers. Remember once you are online you may fetch compliments but be open to criticism.

I would like to commend @DubaiMallNews on handling the Aquarium Leakage issue yesterday. They were honest enough to post a note on the twitter about the leakage and then inform the customers that the situation has been contained. This was just an example of how can you communicate with your customers on social media.

Continuous threat to shut down some of the popular Social Networking sites in the region can lead to sudden death of this medium. This is a highly discussed issue in Middle East which can have serious business impact and will be covered in Part 2 of this series.

Facebook team’s up with Connect Ads

Trevor Johnson, head of strategy and planning for Facebook EMEA, announced Facebook's recent alliance with Connect Ads, who have been named the site's official representation partner in the region, at a press conference on Wednesday

Facebook hopes that the deal with Connect Ads will give exposure to advertisers in a socially conservative Middle East region where online marketing is in its early stages and social media sites under threat at times from the service providers.

I had an offsite meeting in Marsa Alam, Egypt in 2008 where I met the Connect Ads team. It was a pleasure meeting Mohamed El Sayad GM – MSN Arabia and Amr Al-Masri who is an account executive at Connect Ads. Connect Ads makes an excellent team to work with. They were busy launching MSN Maghreb then and today they have managed to seize control of Facebook in the Middle East.

The Cairo-based advertising booker already handles sales for Microsoft Corp.’s MSN regional portals and other local sites namely MSN Arabia, MSN Maghreb, ArabFinance.com, Masrawy.com, Otlob.com, Yallabina.com, Mazika.com, CareerMidEast.com, YallaKora.com, Barca Arabia, and El3ab.com

There are about ten million active Facebook users in the Middle East and North Africa region, making up about 2.5% of the social networking site's total base of 400 million active users worldwide. United Arab Emirates has an average of 1.2 million Facebook users with more growth expected from the Middle East as a whole over the coming years.