Hiya :)

I was wondering if any companies have had experience with the Middle East e.g Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait etc?

By experience I mean selling hosting to them or hosting in there etc? Just wondering about the market over there.

Also is there a way to know how the internet market runs in those countries? I know there is some government control.

Thanks in advance :)

Salsabil

Hello,

Regarding your question, of course the market in States is the best all around.

Among all of our clients we are having only 1% from Middle East, and I guess it's becasue our head quarters is based in UAE and they could have a chance to market localy.

86% United States ( 12% California )
6% Eroupe
5% Canada
2% Asia
1% Africa

Have a great day!

Hiya

Thanks for that info :)

I was wondering what the internet access in those countries is like e.g. saudi arabia or UAE? Is it easy for an average person to get or is it something which is hard to access/slow etc?

Hello,

You welcome anytime. As per your second question, mostly you can say after year 2001 90% of people in UAE are having their interent line. However still 50% of those are using 56kbs/sec modems. And the rest are using 386kbs/sec DSL lines. Which are not even 386kbs/sec. The maximum you can reach is 150kbs/sec.

And only 10% can afford to have T1 - T2 lines. They are quite expensive. Lets say it's almost US$ 7000 /per month.

We are paying US$ 15000/month having OC3 connection.

Any other question ?

I was in Turkey earlier this year and was really impressed with how fast a lot of the Internet Cafes were around the country, there were a few slow ones but most were pretty quick. Turkey is kinda in the middle east :)

Lots of people playing counterstrike which was cool :)

They have a lot of technology related companies in Israel. We only have a few clients in the Middle East.

Hello,

I am currently on a business/Holiday trip in Cyprus...

We are thinking of setting another base in Nicosia!

It seems that many people that are currently on 56k modems are moving onto ADSL...

www.cytanet.com.cy is the bandwidth provider up here and i visited there datacentre to be impressed by very good equipment.

We currently have approx 134 websites in the Middle east region and hopefully take a larger pie if we setup base in the middle of the mediteranian(sp) sea.

Kind regards

Originally posted by salsabil
Hiya :)
I was wondering if any companies have had experience with the Middle East e.g Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait etc?
By experience I mean selling hosting to them or hosting in there etc? Just wondering about the market over there.
Also is there a way to know how the internet market runs in those countries? I know there is some government control.
Thanks in advance :)

Salsabil

FeaturePrice has the most experience as the owner, Fathi Said is of mid-eastern descent. I have seen all types of sites hosted there. Web designer in Sudan, computer school in Saudi, and many that I can't read (farsi, arabic, etc). The company has a dual HQ Florida and somewhere in Austria. You may want to ask them?