On the products side, Souq.com recently launched its babyware category, and the chief executive says that “a natural extension would also be home… be it home décor and so on” as well as widening existing categories. But the real sea-change will come in the form of digital content and media, especially Arabic content. A recent Booz & Company report suggested that 37 percent of internet users in the region are dissatisfied with the availability of Arabic-language websites, and there is a huge gap between the global share of Arabic content online (estimated at just 3 percent) and the world’s roughly half a billion Arabic speakers.
Mouchawar says Souq.com will be aiming to bridge that gap by signing up partnerships with media firms who will be able to provide content for the site. In part, it’s already kicked off that process via the launch in December of the QTAB, a mid-market eight-inch wi-fi Android tablet aimed squarely at Arabic audiences. It’s a bold step, especially given the huge competition any new device in that range faces from the likes of Apple and Samsung, but Mouchawar says the tablet itself is only half the story.
“It’s just a complementary component of the platform,” he points out. “It’s serviced, so if our customers have any questions, our service centres are across the region. The plan is to connect as many customers as we can to this tablet, and then in phase two, we will add more services to that platform.
“We will also need to iterate and come out with a 3G version, but I think the real value add comes when we add the services, in terms of the content on top.”
source: arabianbusiness.com
Tags: business, Latest Business news, Market maker, Ronaldo Mouchawar, Ronnie from souq, souq ceo, souq investment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.