The recent ranking of Amman as one of the world’s top cities for internet start-ups has highlighted Jordan’s success in the IT sector. The list, compiled by Rachid Sefrioui, the founder of venture capital firm Finaventures, ranked 10 cities on the basis of availability of talent, infrastructure and capital, legal environment and evidence of entrepreneurship.
Since the year 2000, when the internet penetration rate was just 5%, the local IT market has come a long way. Nearly 40% of Kuwaitis are now online, with recent growth driven by mobile internet subscriptions. In 2004 the government released the National Strategy for Building an Information Society, which visualises ramping up the IT sector as a...
Driven by a large youth demographic, Kuwait’s uptake of mobile internet and new technological innovations has been substantial. While broadband internet prices remain comparatively high, mobile operators have managed to make Blackberries and iPhones ubiquitous. Social media, meanwhile, appears well ensconced locally. Still, the lack of Arabic...
The entry of Viva, a third mobile operator, at the end of 2008 has ratcheted up the competition and lowered prices in a country which previously had some of the world’s highest average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. Revenues are still relatively high, but all three of the country’s mobile carriers are scrambling to get more creative and offer value...
In 1999 Kuwait became the first GCC nation to license a second mobile carrier, which gave its domestic industry a head start on becoming the relatively sophisticated telecoms market it is today. Though the local market is relatively small, the country has long been a profitable place for its leading mobile operators, Zain and Wataniya, with one of...
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