Clearly, we need to work on trademark protection in the UAE.
Dubizzle Numbers
I may be totally off base on this, but from what I have heard, Dubizzle currently does USD 10 million in annual revenue.
The recent investment into the firm by South African media conglomerate Naspers’ wholly owned subsidiary MIH Internet is estimated to be USD 10 million for an undisclosed stake.
Great numbers. Let’s hope it is an indicator of good things to come for the regional online space.
Great image by Brownbook.ae explaining the various different thobes / kanduras found in the GCC. There are some variations that aren’t covered, but fascinating none the less!
Source: brownbook.ae
Apple to open first Middle East Store in Dubai on March 16th
Great if it’s true. I doubt that Apple will open a store within Virgin Megastore directly and then staff it with their own staff.
Coupon / Deal Sites in Dubai
With coupons being the hottest “me-too” area at the moment, there seems to be a new player starting up every week. Here’s my list of current players in Dubai. I’ll try to update it as and when players arrive and leave the market.
In no particular order:
- Gonabit - Local, backed by Bayt.com
- Cobone, Local, backed by Jabber Internet Group & external partners.
- Groupon - Chicago based, backed by it’s well known parent.
- livingsocial (coming soon) - Washington DC based, invested in by Amazon.
- Deal Gobbler - Local, unknown backers
- Dealaboo - Local, unknown backers
8th June 2011 - An update to my first list:
- Moosavings - Local, backed by Cactimedia
- YallaBanana - Local, backed by Turret Digital
It’s not that big a market folks.
Kuwait Surplus / Nakheel Debt
Kuwait’s budget surplus of USD 22.4 billion would cover 88.8% of Nakheel’s debt. Kuwait is an oil producing country. Nakheel is a Dubai government owned developer of luxury real estate.
Moral: Luxury real estate bad. Oil producing good.
Nakheel Debt
According to a Dubai World restructuring document obtained by Reuters, Nakheel owes USD 10.9 billion to banks, USD 5.1 billion in trade creditor claims and USD 9.2 billion in customer liabilites.
Grand Total: USD 25.2 billion. AED 92 billion. Woah.
The imprisonment of debtors has become part of Dubai’s mood music, coming amid research by Datamonitor that says more than a fifth of expatriates in the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a member, have failed to meet credit card or loan repayments over the past year.
Founder of 