Stretching from Morocco to Oman, MENA’s population tops 350 million, making it the world’s ninth largest market. But trade barriers among countries in the region have constrained market growth.

Now, an emerging trend is disrupting MENA’s traditional market patterns: a growing segment of urbanized, tech-savvy Arab youths is devouring on-line entertainment, gaming and social media, creating demand for digital services that are delivered across borders.

Despite differences among the region’s nations, its shared language and culture gives rise to a homogenous market that spans the breadth of the Arab world. With over 100 million people between the ages of 15 and 29, many of whom are economically active, the promise of the Arab digital market is sparking the interest of investors and entrepreneurs.

The popularity of social media in the region was highlighted during the recent Arab uprisings. The news was dominated by stories about how social media was used to mobilize demonstrators, but, in fact, MENA’s youths have been consuming a wide array of digital media.

The precursor to MENA’s digital sector is the successful Arab satellite TV industry — dominated by Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera and Saudi-backed Al-Arabiya. In the last decade, Arab-based TV has matured and expanded, delivering content through several outlets, including the Internet, to audiences around the world.

Like its satellite TV analog, the Arab digital market’s fundamentals are strong. In addition to its positive demographics, mentioned above, MENA’s internet usage has already reached 187 million from 10 million only a decade ago (source: TNS MENA). Mobile broadband penetration is rising quickly due to the adoption of LTE standards in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and an explosion of smartphones and tablets.

As with any emerging sector, there are challenges. Monetizing digital media relies mostly on advertising, which has been undervalued in the region. Whether some type of pay model could work in the future is an open question.

MENA 2.0 is still in its infancy, but major international players have already arrived including Yahoo!, which bought Maktoob, a Jordanian portal; Google, which launched in the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and Livingsocial, which acquired Dubai-based GoNabit.

One of the more intriguing features of the Arab digital market is the brisk pace of innovative ideas bubbling up from local platform, app, and content developers. For investors and entrepreneurs, the medium to long-term prospects look bright.

MENA 2.0 could transform the region, creating new business opportunities, youth employment and economic growth. It’s an exciting space to watch, and one that’s worth a closer look by anyone interested in what’s coming next.

***

______________________

Notes:

MENA refers to the following countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

Regional macroeconomic data from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report and the World Bank’s MENA resources.

Want more info on this subject?

Arab Net, a conference for MENA’s digital services sector. More on Arab Net from All Things D.

Vali Nasr’s ’09 book, Forces of Fortune – The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. -Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

The Urge to Connect

History shows that that when robust tools serve a powerful human drive, revolutionary changes occur. That’s happening now as social media enable people to satisfy their primal urge to connect with each another. Social media are ubiquitous, cheap, and accessible, and their widespread use is having a profound impact on business.

While the technology is grabbing the headlines, the more interesting story is how people around the world are using social media. They’re fulfilling their desire to connect with each other, forming communities in the process. The communities function like virtual beehives — amorphous, dynamic structures where members coalesce to share information.

Smart companies recognize the commercial value of communities. They treat community members more like stakeholders than consumers. Instead of broadcasting their messages at them, they engage followers in dialogue. In time, followers can be converted to evangelists.  In a hyper-connected world, evangelism carries messages fast and far, boosting the value of the brand.

Follow the Leaders…

I’ve lauded Zappos, Virgin America, and Comcast for their skillful community-building initiatives. Starbucks, WholeFoods, and BestBuy are also out in front with exemplary strategies. But, lately I’ve been impressed with JetBlue’s community-building strategy which can serve as a model for other companies.

The airline (@JetBlue) has been mastering the art of community-building on Twitter and, in the process, has grown its base of followers to almost 1.5 million.

Last August, the airline promoted its All-You-Can-Jet-Pass (for $599) to its community. To the company’s delight, the campaign went “viral” quickly, selling out earlier than expected after creating a buzz.

The campaign succeeded because JetBlue had already built a community of ardent followers where its message reverberated.  How did the company do it? The airline’s staff of rotating community managers engages followers in a manner reflective of the airline’s brand personality. Their tone is informal, conversational and hip — an attitude particularly suited for Twitter that traditional airlines can’t match.

The airline hasn’t been afraid to experiment in this space either. They’re learning about their community based on trying successive low-cost, low-risk campaigns.

To herald its new NYC-Barbados route, the airline announced a contest where participants take a photo in front of a New York landmark that incorporates both Barbados and JetBlue. The top 20 receive tickets to a concert featuring Rihanna, a popular Barbadian-American singer. JetBlue is counting on the community to spread the word.

So far, JetBlue’s social media strategy seems to be resonating with its followers. The size and influence of their community is substantial and growing rapidly. And, they’re harnessing the power of the hive.

Three Lessons from JetBlue

What can we learn from JetBlue’s success? Here are three things:

1) “Engage with” rather than “broadcast to” followers

2) Experiment to find out what works

3) Above all, stay focused on community-building

For me, social media stories always raise more questions: What can be done with new tools that couldn’t be done before? What else can we learn from leaders? And, how are they dealing with the new set of challenges that come with the territory?

One thing seems certain: for companies with the curiosity, imagination and the good sense to ease up on the reins-of-control, this is an interesting and promising space.

What do you think?  As always, I’d love to get your take on this post. What community-building “masters” would you cite and why?

________________________

Want to learn more about this subject?

Read Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody, about which he writes:  “… one of the things I most hope readers get out of it, is an excitement about how much experimentation is still possible, and how many new uses of our social tools are waiting to be invented.”

The book explores the broader context of communities including the sociological drivers. Here is a brief excerpt:

Human beings are social creatures—not occasionally or by accident but always. Sociability is one of our lives as both cause and effect. Society is not just the product of its individual members; it is also the product of its constituent groups.

The aggregate relations among individuals and groups, among individuals within groups, and among groups forms a network of astonishing complexity. We have always relied on group effort for survival; even before the invention of agriculture, hunting and gathering required coordinate work and division of labor. You can see an echo of our talent for sociability in the language we have for groups; like a real-world version of the mythical seventeen Eskimo words for snow, we use incredibly rich language in describing human association.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You never know with these things when you’re trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental. ~Richard Branson

Over the years, there have been surprisingly few breakthroughs in the airline customer experience - until recently. Sir Richard Branson’s venture into the U.S. market, Virgin America, (VX) is redefining air travel by providing passengers with a fresh, distinctive on-board experience. The carrier is less than two years old but it’s quickly becoming a template for what’s possible in the future.

The choices VX is making demonstrate a “customer experience mindset” that’s all too rare in the industry. It’s evident that the VX team devoted their attention to passenger comfort and convenience. Features “baked in” to the customer experience include seats with power-outlets and USB ports. Cabins in their new A320s have soft mood lighting.

Healthy, appetizing meals designed by star-chef Luke Mangan show that the company knows what their customers prefer.  Features like these aren’t found on any domestic airline, let alone a low-cost one.

Last week, VX announced that its fleet is 100% WiFi-equipped (Gogo). They only have 28 planes, but they can boast that they’re the world’s first airline to reach that coveted milestone.

What’s most impressive is VX’s touch-screen, interactive entertainment system. The platform, known as Red, enables passengers to watch movies and live TV, play games, chat on-line with other passengers, and sample or even download MP3s from a massive digital library. Passengers can also use Red to order and pay for food and beverages which they receive “on-demand”.  For the digitally-inclined traveler, this is the way to fly.

Given the prohibitive cost of installing systems like Red on their existing fleets, it’s doubtful that any of the major network carriers will soon match VX’s “at-seat” amenities. But, the toughest feature for VX’s rivals to co-opt is its “customer experience mindset”.  These advantages could give the carrier a strong lead in the service innovation race for years to come if it stays healthy during this slowdown.

The airline serves only a handful of markets (New York, Boston, DC and the West Coast).  But, they’re big league markets where VX is attracting a cadre of loyal, well-heeled fans.  As an industry guy, I’m tipping my hat to Sir Richard Branson and VX’s San Francisco-based team for rethinking the in-flight experience, and for executing it well.

What do you think?  Have you sampled Virgin America?  I appreciate your perspective.

_____________________

Want more on this subject?

Richard Branson (Reuters, 6-2-09): “It’s unlikely all the big U.S. airlines will survive.”

Read Red Orbit’s piece (10-16-08), “Virgin America Wins Best Domestic Airline in Conde Nast Traveler’s (’08) Readers’ Choice Awards”.

Check out SimpliFlying’s series on Richard Branson and Virgin America.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Imagine some of the most inspired and provocative writers, artists, scientists, business people, teachers and leaders – drawn from myriad fields, from across the country and from around the world – all gathered in a single place, ready to teach, speak, lead, question and answer – all interacting with an audience of thoughtful people, who have stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought and discussion.

I haven’t had a chance to sample many of the video clips yet. But one of the more enjoyable so far has been Walt Mossberg’s entertaining talk on The Future of the Internet and the Rise of the Cell Phone.  Among other things, he suggests the interesting, broader implications of the device “formerly known as the cell phone,” (aka smart phone).

Want more?  Visit Mossberg’s and partner, Kara Swisher’s informative site, AllThingsD. 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The revolution is discussed by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams in their compelling ’07 book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. The authors explore opportunities for organizations to understand and tap into web-enabled collaboration.     

Describing the upheaval as a social revolution isn’t mere hype. Even though mass collaboration, on a global scale, has just begun, encyclopedias, airplanes, software and a host of products and services are being created by distributed teams across oceans.  

P&G was struggling until it shifted to a mass collaboration-driven R&D model several years ago.  Their  success in creating new products and gnerating incremental revenue captured the minds and hearts of analysts around the world.

My company is taking part in wiki-based client-directed efforts.  Team members in Chicago, Seattle and Dublin are collaborating on projects for clients in Capetown and Milwaukee.  

The immediacy and accessibility of wikis leads to an informal, roll-up-your-sleeves setting. And it’s not just atmospherics at play. Under the right circumstances productive wiki-brainstorms tend to occur… 

There are many new challenges concerning how to structure problems to enable multiple teams to work on them and how to manage organizational networks of collaboration. This is fertile ground for social networkers and other theorists to explore.  We keep abreast of emergent practices across industries but some of our best insights come from direct experimention.

The spirit of enthusiasm and experimentation drive our best wiki effots. And I can’t begin to describe the pure joy of escaping the shackles of e-mail.  What’s not to love?  To be continued…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Now I really like Taleb’s work, and this book is a fascinating look at the world of unpredictable events. Taleb is an  mathematician who explains why such events are impossible to predict. But Anderson tells it better than I could, and I’m sharing:

Four hundred years ago, Francis Bacon warned that our minds are wired to deceive us. “Beware the fallacies into which undisciplined thinkers most easily fall–they are the real distorting prisms of human nature.” Chief among them: “Assuming more order than exists in chaotic nature.” Now consider the typical stock market report: “Today investors bid shares down out of concern over Iranian oil production.” Sigh. We’re still doing it.

Our brains are wired for narrative, not statistical uncertainty. And so we tell ourselves simple stories to explain complex thing we don’t–and, most importantly, can’t–know. The truth is that we have no idea why stock markets go up or down on any given day, and whatever reason we give is sure to be grossly simplified, if not flat out wrong.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb first made this argument in Fooled by Randomness, an engaging look at the history and reasons for our predilection for self-deception when it comes to statistics. Now, in The Black Swan: the Impact of the Highly Improbable, he focuses on that most dismal of sciences, predicting the future. Forecasting is not just at the heart of Wall Street, but it’s something each of us does every time we make an insurance payment or strap on a seat belt.

The problem, Nassim explains, is that we place too much weight on the odds that past events will repeat (diligently trying to follow the path of the “millionaire next door,” when unrepeatable chance is a better explanation). Instead, the really important events are rare and unpredictable. He calls them Black Swans, which is a reference to a 17th century philosophical thought experiment. In Europe all anyone had ever seen were white swans; indeed, “all swans are white” had long been used as the standard example of a scientific truth. So what was the chance of seeing a black one? Impossible to calculate, or at least they were until 1697, when explorers found Cygnus atratus in Australia.

Nassim argues that most of the really big events in our world are rare and unpredictable, and thus trying to extract generalizable stories to explain them may be emotionally satisfying, but it’s practically useless. September 11th is one such example, and stock market crashes are another. Or, as he puts it, “History does not crawl, it jumps.” Our assumptions grow out of the bell-curve predictability of what he calls “Mediocristan,” while our world is really shaped by the wild powerlaw swings of “Extremistan.”

In full disclosure, I’m a long admirer of Taleb’s work and a few of my comments on drafts found their way into the book. I, too, look at the world through the powerlaw lens, and I too find that it reveals how many of our assumptions are wrong. But Taleb takes this to a new level with a delightful romp through history, economics, and the frailties of human nature.

Want more on Taleb?  Check out Charlie Rose’s interview…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Speaking of which, here’s a gem: It’s Rice University professor Richard Baraniuk (TED, 06) discussing his vision of creating a free online learning system based on collaboration among global instructors and learners.

He’s realizing his vision with Connexions, a collaborative software platform that enables anyone to create, share, modify and vet learning material accessible, at no charge, through Creative Commons licensing.

Currently, their content is accessed by over 850,000 users per month – a critical mass of global learners – making it one of the world’s most popular OER sites.

What’s next, I think, is the rise of global knowledge networks and learner-driven content made possible by the new generation of collaborative tools like wikis. Big things come from small steps…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Klein says, “When I think of air travel, there is a conditioned response that it is going to be bad,” and adds, “We’ve forgotten it is a social occasion. I can’t think of any acknowledgement of that by the airlines today.”

He’s so right.  He’s probably someone the industry should tap to help redesign on-board service programs.  In fact, bringing experts from analogous fields like hospitality is a great place to start when rethinking services.  Successful restauranteurs can also bring a lot of practical insight.  Of course, we’d have to bring designers and artists to the party.

I like the concept of tapping experts from a variety of fields and disciplines outside the industry – along with customers – to come with distinctive alternatives that make the on-board experience more enjoyable.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

According to Eva Ziegler, a senior VP who is driving the transformation, “When the business guy who just did 10 meetings in a day arrives at the hotel, all he can dream of is room service and sleep,” he says. “We want to reset his mind!” She added, “My role is to create unique experiences for the guest that stimulate all five senses.”

How are they doing it? The hotelier set out to create a rich, even suprising experience for the customer from the time he or she arrives.  That includes music, art, and food—even scents that waft through the hotel.  The ambience of the hotel is infused with elements that engender a pleasurable experience.

Ziegler set up the LM100, a rotating group of artists assembled to enhance the service experience.  Her mission has been to “court LM100′s cast of artists – painters, designers, and architects – to transform more than 50 aspects of the hotel.”  The artists have created a range of unique artifacts to enhance the customer’s experience.

Le Meridien is already enjoying impressive results. In February, its 2.4 million on-line bookings were 41% higher than the year before.

Branding consultant Steven Addis observes: “The old-school version of this would have been to put together a committee, redesign the hotel, and that’s it.” He adds, ”Instead, these guys are going to be perpetually curating on behalf of — not marketing at — its audience.”

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But it turns out the best (read: game changing) tip on blogging came from Nora Ephron who advised Charlie Rose on how to do it. She said, “Sit down and write, and write it fast, and if you’ve been working on it for more than an hour and a half it’s not a blog. It’s something else and you’ve taken too long on it because it should really feel as if it’s true at that moment and then not much longer than that.”  Bingo.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.