InfoAnda - Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Cyclone Rene batters Tonga, cutting phone links | 15 February 2010
Cambodia detains Thai citizen on spy charges | 13 November 2009
Olivia Wilde, Maria Bello bring Hollywood to Haiti | | 18 December 2010

Tori Amos puts new spin on old songs for Gold Dust | | 26 October 2012

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Aerospace & Defense Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Campaign Polling Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Anatole Kaletsky Reihan Salam Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Mark Leonard Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (1) Counterparties: Today's Best Links The long decline of labor Over the last 25 years, labor's been in a long, steady decline. And, relative to the rest of the economy, things have gotten worse since the crisis. Read more at Counterparties Fed's latest move helps banks, not homeowners Apple's avoidable maps mistake Get the Counterparties email newsletter! Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Rajoy inches toward aid as protests seethe | 10:55am EDT Google says Maps not waiting in wings for iPhone 5 25 Sep 2012 Iran unveils long-range drone: state TV 25 Sep 2012 Death of rebel who caught Gaddafi stokes Libya tensions 8:48am EDT Stern Advice: How you, too, can cash in on Romney tax breaks 9:59am EDT Discussed 120 Iran ready to defend against Israeli attack: Ahmadinejad 118 Egypt Salafi urges U.N. to criminalize contempt of Islam 103 Obama offers himself up as ‘eye candy’ on ‘The View’ Sponsored Links Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Greek fury Greek police clash with protesters in Greece's biggest anti-austerity demonstration in months. Slideshow Profile: Katy Perry Katy Perry is named Billboard's Woman of the Year. Slideshow Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Insight: Italy's slow Internet set for reboot 4:55am EDT Iran readies domestic Internet system, blocks Google Sun, Sep 23 2012 Exclusive: Facebook to charge merchants to run offers Thu, Sep 20 2012 REFILE-UPDATE 1-Samsung challenge: sold the phone, how to keep the customer Thu, Sep 6 2012 Facebook rules out share sale to cover tax bill Wed, Sep 5 2012 Analysis & Opinion Financial cybercrime a national security threat, U.S. Justice Department official warns Globalization, the tech revolution and the middle class Related Topics Tech » Media » Facebook » A man walks past a screen during a news conference announcing the opening of Facebook offices in Dubai May 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Jumana El Heloueh By Matt Smith DUBAI | Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:11am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Middle East telecommunications firms are discussing the idea of creating a pan-Arab online platform that would earn them more revenue from their networks by challenging Facebook and other Internet behemoths of the West. The ambitious project faces technical and financial obstacles and may never be implemented on a large scale. But proponents argue the common language and culture shared by the world's more than 350 million Arabic speakers, plus the webs of affiliated companies which Gulf operators own across the Middle East and North Africa, could make the project viable. "A single operator, even one in multiple geographies and with tens of millions of subscribers, can't create this platform on its own," said Osman Sultan, chief executive of du, the second biggest operator in the United Arab Emirates. "It would be restricted to the customers of this operator and wouldn't have sufficient scale to succeed. But a unified platform spanning the Arab world would," he told Reuters. Sultan said he had proposed the idea to all major operators in the Arab world over the past 12 months. Behind the proposal is a frustration shared by telecommunications firms globally: as they spend heavily to build networks, data traffic on the networks is increasing rapidly, but the firms essentially only make money from charging for access to their networks - a low-margin business. The lion's share of new revenue from traffic is being taken by so-called "over-the-top" (OTT) Internet companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter. The telecommunications firms have unsuccessfully pressed them for bigger contributions to the cost of building the networks. "OTT players...we can't share their gain and they won't share our pain," said Sultan. "Network traffic doubles every eight to nine months, but revenue is heading to a plateau, so we need to claim part of the new revenues alongside OTT players." VERY DIFFICULT The proposed Arab online platform would feature social media and online shopping for goods and services, including digital content such as music, video and applications, Sultan said. He declined to give details, saying parts of the talks were confidential, and most other Arab telecommunications operators contacted by Reuters declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment But Sheikh Mohamed Al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain Telecommunications Co, welcomed the idea. "Telcos are beginning to look to the deployment of OTT services such as streamed TV and video-on-demand," he said. "Such diversification (into) adjacent industries has become necessary. There are gains to be made by collaborating within our industry in the Middle East." Sceptics point to the fact that efforts by telecommunications firms elsewhere in the world to set up online ventures have often failed when faced with the technical savvy and marketing muscle of the established Internet giants. "Fundamentally, it's very difficult to complete against OTT players - operators lack the agility and the core competencies as well as the brand appeal," said Guillermo Escofet, a senior analyst at Informa Telecom and Media in London. "They're used to running networks, not being media companies. Also, operators instinctively try to differentiate themselves from each other - it's against their DNA to work together." London-listed Vodafone is one of a number of operators that have had difficulty creating Internet services. The Vodafone 360 service, based on customers' phone address books, was launched in Europe in 2009, letting customers import contacts from social networks and use an online application store. In 2011, Vodafone said it was winding down the service. "Operators have failed miserably every time they have tried to move up the value chain, except for in certain business-to-business services," said Pedro Oliveira, a partner at global management consultants Oliver Wyman. "Some have tried to move into content and applications, but the war is lost already." The big Western Internet firms are already popular around the Middle East. Facebook, which offers an Arabic interface, had 45.2 million users in the Arab world as of June 30, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the Arab Social Media Report, produced by the Dubai School of Government. Despite pockets of innovation in the region, such as video game industries in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and ventures developing applications for smart phones in Egypt, the Middle East has so far not come close to developing online products to rival the top Western Internet companies. FEASIBLE However, proponents of the telecommunications firms' online plan argue it is more feasible in the Arab world than elsewhere. Only about 1 percent of the world's websites are in Arabic, according to a survey by analysts W3techs. Internet penetration lags regions such as Europe, North America and east Asia, with only about 86 million of the estimated 360 million native Arabic speakers online at end-2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group said. Such figures may mean Western Internet firms are not yet so entrenched in the Middle East that they cannot be challenged. The new online platform would satisfy hunger among the region's young population for more Arabic-language content, said Sultan. Another factor is the impressive geographical reach of Gulf telecommunications firms; if a few of them can agree on introducing the online platform, they may be able to roll it out quickly across more than a dozen countries. Combined, Qatar Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Kuwait's Zain and the UAE's Etisalat cover 16 of the 22 Arab League countries. The other six countries are the smallest four in economic terms - Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros - plus war-ravaged Libya and Syria. The Arab telecommunications operators' extensive distribution networks and point-of-sale advertising could help them win customers from OTT players. Most Middle Eastern mobile phone subscribers are on pre-paid contracts typically topped up with scratch cards. These are sold everywhere from petrol stations to local stores, so vouchers for the online platform might easily be rolled out alongside them. "The reach we have to consumers and the knowledge we have of consumer behavior is vast," Sultan said. Thomas Kuruvilla, managing director of consultants Arthur D. Little Middle East, said an alliance of regional telecommunications firms could form a community of social networks that was attractive to local populations. If the firms can cooperate on content and social networks, "it will surely attract more niche advertisers and hence higher revenue potential," he said. However, even if the region's biggest telecommunications firms succeed with the online platform, it will be hard for smaller operators to make much money from it, said Oliveira. This could consign smaller firms to serving as nothing more than low-margin pipes for the data services of the big ones. In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have multiple telecommunications firms providing Internet access, and some of them may be the most vulnerable to becoming "dumb pipes". Such companies might cut access fees to their networks in an effort to win market share, Oliveira said. "If one operator takes this approach, then others in the same market may be forced to follow as they lose revenue and market share and struggle to keep on investing in their network," he said. "It's a race to the bottom." (Editing by Andrew Torchia) Tech Media Facebook Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) Eric.Klein wrote: Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Obama at U.N. calls for end to intolerance, warns Iran |
Italian PM Mario Monti says he won't run for election |
Spain prepares more austerity, protesters clash with police |
China slowdown adds urgency to Communist Party soul searching |
Syrian rebel bombs target security building in Damascus |
Egypt sentences Islamists to jail over Suez murder |
Russian lawmakers call for jail for blasphemous acts |
South Africa's Malema to face corruption hearing |
Yahoo names new CFO as Mayer fleshes out plans |
Ericsson buys Canada-based ConceptWave Software |
Katy Perry named Billboard's woman of the year |
Ronnie Wood, ex-wife auction off Rolling Stones memorabilia |
Gay TV show New Normal gives Republicans a voice |
Juan Luis Guerra leads Latin Grammy nominations |
NBC renews The Voice for two more seasons |
Spain to seek bailout if yields too high for too long |
Greek government faces first big anti-austerity strike |
South Africa's Malema charged with money-laundering |
China, Japan stand their ground in islands row, but keep talking |
Maldives court orders island arrest for ousted president |
Japan opposition gives ex-PM Abe second chance amid China feud |
Explosions strike top Syrian army building |
Magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes near Mexico's Baja Peninsula |
North Korea gets lukewarm reception to investment plea |
Brazil court orders YouTube to remove anti-Islam film |
Yahoo CEO fleshes out plans, new CFO named |
Barnes & Noble takes aims at Amazon, Apple with HD Nook tablets |
Wells Fargo website hit by access issues amid cyber threats |
Online video firm Youku Tudou sees slower content-cost growth |
Google executive in Brazil faces arrest over elections law |
IBM aims for Amazon, Salesforce.com with midsize cloud plan: WSJ |
RIM spurs rare optimism with surprising growth, new phone |
Lawsuit over HP ex-CEO Hurd payout dismissed |
Widespread use of digital wallets to take time: Canada panel |
Cisco CEO suggests Whitman will have hard time turning around HP |
Madonna says she was being ironic in calling Obama a Muslim |
Gay TV show New Normal gives Republicans a voice |
Pakistan Islamist accuses Obama of religious war on Muslims |
Anti-cuts protests erupt on streets of Athens and Madrid |
Death of rebel who caught Gaddafi stokes Libya tensions |
EU considers sanctions against Iranian banks, energy sector |
French joblessness tops 3 million for first time in 13 yrs |
U.N. nuclear chief Amano to stand for another term |
Iran pushes ahead in building nuclear reactor |
Families of Polish plane crash victims ask: Who did we bury? |
Insight: Italy's slow Internet set for reboot |
Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight |
Angry Birds maker hopes Bad Piggies will help it fly again |
IBM aims for Amazon, Salesforce.com with midsize cloud plan: WSJ |
Chinese ministries test-drive China-made electric cars: Xinhua |
RIM shares rise further as investors see hope |
China solar groups reject illegal subsidy complaint |
Singer Andy Williams dies at age 84 |
Potter author steps into unknown with adult debut |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01