Al-Bawaba, (The Gateway), a new Arabic Internet portal officially launched today, offers something that has been missing in the Middle East's media: Original, independently-produced contents with a pan-Arabic perspective.
"Until now, the media have provided Arabic-speakers with contents translated from foreign agencies or produced with a single locality in mind," said Ramzi E. Khoury, Editor-in-Chief. "But we are covering the entire Arab world, handling topics previously absent in both the Internet and non-internet media. We are providing Middle Easterners with fresh points of view from neighbors all over the region.
In addition to news, Al-Bawaba also provides Middle East-oriented business, entertainment, sports, tourism, children's and health programs. Al-Bawaba also offers many of its channels in English, and a business channel in French, enabling the participation of internet users around the world.
"In the past, the Middle East media have been the consumers of imported foreign contents. But at Al-Bawaba, we are creating proprietary contents and exporting them to foreign sites," said Ziad Abdelnour, acting CEO. Al-Bawaba already has reached a licensing deal with one of the largest American suppliers of Internet content.
Al-Bawaba is supported by cutting-edge technology, offering the world's most advanced Arabic-language search engine and most comprehensive Arabic Web Guide. Al-Bawaba also plans to be the driving force behind e-commerce in the Middle East.
"We expect Al-Bawaba to be the Middle East's largest and most colorful souk, a single location for doing business, getting information, e-mails, chats, forums, shopping malls, and connecting with the outside world," said Hani Jabsheh, of Middle East Internet Holdings Corp., an Arab investor in the portal.
Al-Bawaba makes great business sense as Internet usage in the Middle East is growing at a tremendous pace, with the number of users doubling each year. Target markets, in addition to the 370 million people in the Middle East, include more than 30 million people of Arab descent living outside the region and an estimated 25 million tourists that visit the Middle East each year.
The funding raised to date represents the largest investment ever made in an Arab high-tech startup. Founding investors include the Middle East Internet Holding Corp., comprising a group of prominent Arab investors; TFG, the largest publicly-traded venture capital group in Germany and THCG Inc., a publicly-traded U.S. company.
Al-Bawaba's Content Division is headquartered in Amman, Jordan with reporters and content providers located in 21 Middle Eastern countries. The company maintains a business office in London and plans to open regional offices in Dubai, Morocco, Lebanon and Cyprus.
Al-Bawaba can be found at www.albawaba.com
For more information please contact e-mail: pr@albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
