The Problem & The Solution
I’ve got this idea that has been boiling in my head for a while now and I just had to post it here.
The back story
Etisalat first introduced the internet in UAE in 1995. The country has been exposed to the internet for ten years now and we have come a very long way. I remember when the net first came out, everyone was very suspicious of the way it will change people. They were right, people did change because of it. The net culture is now so mingled very deeply in our minds and there is no way back. People who were born into this internet era are certainly different from those who came to it already loaded with formed ideas of how to live their lives.
In 2000 Dubai government created DIC as a hub for international companies to operate from and many use it as a regional center to expand their markets. This brought into the country thousands of people who are computer oriented, internet savvy, and who know how to make and spend money on the internet.
Many eCommerce websites came to exist. Over the years, I heard many failure stories and some successes. eCommerce projects that worked seem to be the B-2-B ones. That is probably because people overe here were, up till very recently, not comfortable enough spending their money online. One of the very few successful B-2-C projects that comes to mind is www.uaemall.com. I do not think I saw any other website that worked half as successfully as this one.
I had few goes myself. Together with various people, I created callmonkey.com which was the beginning of what then became a very successful internet business model – sadly I shut it down because it was not done formally as a business and other companies snatched the idea and made hundreds of thousands from it. (perhaps they coincidentally had the same idea after I launched mine, I’d never know) I then started www.uaehub.com with a partner. Again it worked beautifully and we broke-even very soon after we launched and operated into profits. We then sold it to an investor who sadly abandoned it and quit.
Looking back to see what went wrong I can pinpoint two major screw-ups:
- I am an internet geek first and foremost. I have some interest in business obviously but I know computers more than I know companies. Those who joined me were also computer geeks who were learning business. We really should have partners with people who are as wizardly in business as we are in computers. And together, we would have probably made things work.
- I always tried to operate these projects “on the side” never having an office and never having a base. I just seemed to work from hospital, university, home, friend’s place and even in the car. Now very few businesses can be done like that. For something to work properly, it has to be made in a certain formal physical way.
The idea
I think this region is in need of a one super geek internet B-2-C company. It is hard to believe that we don’t have enough computer wizards to implement the thousands of UAE or Middle East based projects out there.
In the last six years, as I went through the cycle of chat rooms, personal web pages, journals, news groups and web communities. I saw some really amazing ideas with lots of potential. Only people did not know what to do with them, and those who did, were too busy or lacked the money to materialize them
When people with ideas, computer wizards and business smarties get together, only the sky is the limit. Now, even if we didn’t have the required computer expertise, simply paying programmers to do what we want should take us where we want.
There must be 50 people out there who are really interested in computer technology in UAE to raise 1 Million Dirham, enough to make our own ebay, our own paypal, our own amazon, our own google maps, or our own snapfish. These are only few projects we can localize to this region, and there is a lot of money involved in them.
The implementation
- 50 People jump onboard. A mix of computer wizards, business wizards, people who are technology oriented or simply people with bright ideas who don’t know what to do with them.
- Raise an initial investment of 0.5 Million Dirham. If we get 50 people, then that works out to 10,000 per person, which is not a lot of money.
- Put together some of our ideas in a box, research the best of them prepare feasibility studies of what we think will work.
- Establish a company that will implement these ideas each as a separate business project.
- Promote that company in every way on god’s earth. With 50 owners, the country will be on fire with word of mouth campaign.
- After 3 months, people pay an other 10,000 to make the total investment 1 Million Dhs.
- After one year, reevaluate. It is unlikely that a million will be burnt out in one year. If things aren’t really working out, we quit
Joining
This is designed to be:
-Something that people can be involved with on the side.
-Something that doesn’t cost a lot of money to start with.
-Something that will be super ultra cool if it works.
-Something that wont cost individual people a lot of money if it fails.
If you are up for this, send me an email through the contact link above. I will respond and keep you updated with what is happening. Even if you are not interested in taking part, but still think this is cool drop me a line.
July 2nd, 2005 at 8:51 pm
I am in =)
July 2nd, 2005 at 8:58 pm
yes, I am interested
July 2nd, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Sounds big!!
If you don’t mind being a bit more specific, it’s very inquisitive. I believe this will work and be super ultra cool as you decide to call it lol inshalla!
July 3rd, 2005 at 12:27 am
Sounds amazing..I’ll ask around and send anyone interested your way ;-)..
July 3rd, 2005 at 8:10 am
That’s so intresting..please keep us updated with what is happening next.
we might give you so some ideas.
July 3rd, 2005 at 10:40 am
sounds very interesting…. definately shows potential.. just needs the right ppl… and aloT of time i guess…
will spread the word :)
good luck!
July 3rd, 2005 at 12:30 pm
interesting ..
i have few Questions though *as usual .. LoL*
1. If 50 people will take part in decicion making, how is that goin to be organized?
2. Where and how all participants meet?
3. What is the absulote minimum for people to invest in it? and what if some one just want to invest but leave all the thinking/working for others is that possible? if not why don’t you do it it might raise the 0.5million to more than that as a start ..
4. Since you brought the idea i guess u’ll be the manager, if not who is it going to be?
5. You gave some example as amazon, ebay..etc. is this project going to be the same as these or do you want to raise new idea?
July 3rd, 2005 at 6:04 pm
It sounds cool bs do you think starting a business with 50 owners is a good idea ?!
Can you give us an example of a business that started in a similar way and succeeded ?!
July 3rd, 2005 at 6:06 pm
Thanks a very interesting idea…
July 4th, 2005 at 3:54 am
Sugar has asked some interesting questions. =)
July 4th, 2005 at 4:08 am
wow…this has alot of potential… sounds really cool as a beginning.. but not as simple as it sounds u know… ofcourse this is not meant to lower your self esteem but it is much more complex than it seems to be… 50 owners? needs aloooot of work and commitment u know… waiting for your answers for sugar’s Q’s…
however… if people are determined to do what they want and they are totally committed to it, then it will work inshalla… best of luck…. remember: nothing is impossible…
keep us updated
July 4th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Hi everyone,
Ok I chose the number 50 for few reasons:
If 50 people will take part in decision making, how is that going to be organized? And where and how all participants meet?
Practically I think, only 5-10 people will be the prime decision making people. Most others will be busy. However, theoretically, it is easy to setup everything electronically; including the decision making process which people can do from home. Not necessarily be physically in touch with each other.
What is the absolute minimum for people to invest in it?
Again, theoretically, people can invest anything from a 1000 to 20,000. It will depend on the total number of participants. Currently, I am getting great responses on my email and website contacts. I will put the updated number of people who wanted to take part on the left of the website main body. So that everyone is updated with what is happening.
what if some one just want to invest but leave all the thinking/working for others is that possible?
Yes that is possible.
Since you brought the idea i guess u’ll be the manager, if not who is it going to be?
I don’t think I will be the manager. I will take part like everyone else. In the process of evolving this, we will find a manager who shares the same vision and who can make it work. Personally, I will supply what I think are super cool projects to be implemented and will help get them to materialize.
You gave some example as amazon, ebay..etc. is this project going to be the same as these or do you want to raise new idea?
Initially, it will be something similar. However, if other people think there is something amazing that these geeks haven’t already done, then we should be the first people to do it and that would be even better.
July 4th, 2005 at 7:57 am
Sealed Dreamer and Raw3ah, welcome on board. thanks for the enthusiasm. Will keep you updated
Vintage, more specific with ideas or more specific with the mechanics of how things work. I dont think publishing here the ins and outs of the available ideas is going to be benefitial. There are the examples I listed above of what sort of things are possible. Things like eBay, paypal or google maps are virtually non existence here. That is a good starting point. There is more, but will preserve it for the insiders who take part rather than the general interested enthusiasms.
Violet, thanks
Blackpearls. I will post updates on what is happening. In the mean time, if you want to send anything my way, feel free.
DxBina, thanks
Esperanza, nothing to the best of my knowledge was designed like this - in uae at least.
A business with 50 owners have no less chance of succeeding than one with a single or two owners. In fact I think is has quite few advantages - listed above. I am open to criticism though.
MaJED, thanks man i got your email.
GWBBA, above :)
3alya, thanks for your input. Please see above for my answers :)
July 4th, 2005 at 10:59 am
sounds more appealing now =)
July 4th, 2005 at 4:57 pm
e3ashig..both i believe, but since it’s an innovate project my request wasn’t very smart.. sorry..again for the reasons you mentioned. Many thanks for being responsive though. Whenever you write more about it, I get even more convinced and enthusiastic. Keep us updated please.
July 4th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
thanx for your answers…the picture is clearer now… keep us updated on whats going on and i will definetly try my best to send people your way if they seemed determined… the idea of investing in this project seems appealing to me… lets c where all this is going.. good luck bro.
July 4th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
i am in!
we will all need some time for the idea to actually marinate.. i think it’s a great one though.. i’ve been through the experience of creating mini projects then selling them off cuz i just didn’t have the time to manage them.. but this is just appealing..
it will take a lot of work.. a lot of effort.. but i believe it will work.. inshalla it will..
there is so much potential in the UAE since we are still not mature on the eCommerce side as the US or the UK.. so there is great room for more ideas and creativity..
i’ll be spreading the word around.. and i know there will be so many interested..
e3ashig.. i am very proud of you..
July 5th, 2005 at 4:09 pm
Hmm.. That’s really a good idea. Keep us updated. I really don’t know whether i am qualified enough to join or not. So can you please list the qualifications needed (an age if possible) ?
July 7th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
Something I think is really needed is a search engine (plug-in?) that allows for fuzzy searching of Arabic names. The problem is a great lack of fixity in transliteration: meaning that not only are Arab peoples underepresented online compared to many western nations, but the information that is there about them is nearly impossible to find.
One can search on “Ahmed Mohammed” OR “Ahmed Mohamed” OR “Ahmed Muhammad” OR “Ahmed Mohamad” but it is still time consuming, and can still leave out the correct spelling. Google will sometimes make alternative suggstions, but again they are not necessarily right either.
“Al” is another problem - sometimes it’s separate, sometimes combined, sometimes hyphenated, etc.
I don’t know if this could be an aspect of your web project, but it would certainly be extremely useful.
July 8th, 2005 at 11:51 pm
I have written a short Guide to UAE blogs and included yours on it. Please let me know if any details are incorrect. I am trying to limit the list to blogs written specifically about the UAE in some way (rather than those that concentrate on people’s personal thoughts/poetry/photos etc).
July 9th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Interested, kindly keep me updated. thanks
July 10th, 2005 at 4:51 am
Great ideas, i spent a great deal of time thinking of how i can transform those same great ideas to meet our region needs. Like you said, there is lots of money involved in both streams. One person cannot do it unless he is surrounded by knowledgeable people. I specialized in the past in IT technologies, and with that solid background, i decided to close the gap with business by getting a master in IT (executive). It’s a mixture of MBA and IT.
Maybe sometime in the near future we can have something come to life. In the meantime, all the luck.
July 11th, 2005 at 10:19 am
Secret Dubai: while the idea is quite useful, i can not think of ways to monetise it. I will add it to our ideas bank and discuse it with everyone, once I sort out a mechanism for that. I like your blod directory. There is at the moment an Internet Club being formed and one of the things in the plan is to provide a guid to UAE blogs. You got there first :)
Cancer, there are now 15 people on board all willing to put time and money to make this work. Understandably, people are still hesitant to part with their ideas but i think that will change once the the whole thing materializes, beside there is already a nice number of public projects that we can localize to our region.
GOUCH, why do you call yourself CANCER anyway?
Bu3askoor, I am delighted to come accross people like yourself who are “Geeks” and want to make use of it. Surely you will have the most useful insights for this project. If you wish to take part, please let me know.
UPDATE:
-15 People on board.
-I think the best way to organize thoughts as we evolve is through wikkis. But I am searching for ready made alternatives as I recieve more and more emails from interested parties.
-I think I have the right starter project to make. Will discuse it with everyone once we have a mechanism
July 17th, 2005 at 11:44 am
am interested :]
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January 10th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
COOL ! i dunno how long this has been up …. but i am in !!
Keep us updated … !!
July 2nd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Ya I am a geek too and i am interested in this idea, please keep me updated.
July 13th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Is this still open ?
July 13th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I am flatterd by all the responses that keep coming through despite this post being made very long time ago. This project is already happening on http://www.printaholics.ae Share the excitement!
July 25th, 2006 at 11:00 am
i’m in.
July 25th, 2006 at 11:01 am
ooh 7aram…i read the first part…didn’t know that the project is already happening…can i still join??