Why Hasn’t There Been A Global Arab Tech Giant Yet?
What are the challenges faced by Arab media in local and global contexts? As I work on my own idea for the next game-changer, or so I believe… I couldn’t help but think of why hasn’t there been a tech giant in the Arab world or from the Arab world just yet? Is it a barrier to entry? Have Porter’s Five Forces spoken? Is it the lack of resources? Is it the mindset? Or is there a hidden agenda that prevents the latter from taking place?
Let’s take a look above at Exhibit A and take into consideration that out of the ‘Top 50 Tech Giants in the World’, none are in blue, hence, none are from the MENA region. Now, in order to begin answering these questions, I had to look into the existing tech giants and understand their lifestyle, habitat, and life history. Both nature and nurture contribute to the formation of the self and mindset, and may I point out that this is not my conclusion, it is basic evolutionary psychology. Sir Francis Galton credited it and then Aristotle summed up the outcomes by saying: «To Perceive Is To Suffer». So now we have something… Suffering and perseverance, thus, trial and error. And so, maybe Arab tech giants are on the rise but need to go through a filtering process in order to reach the big leagues. So what are these filters made of?
Before we move on with the breakdown of tech giants’ respective characteristics and environment, we will need to define what one is. According to Martin Moore’s Tech Giants and Civic Power, he poses the same question and continues with a significant reply… “There is considerable confusion as to what constitutes a ‘tech giant’ beyond simply their size and their focus on technology. Some have attempted to create a new industry category of ‘online intermediaries’ or ‘online platforms’.” (Tech Giants and Civic Power, 5, Web) The previous statement gets you to thinking… The MENA region already has these technologies, and so, the filtering process seems to have only one remaining step… Going global.
Martin Moore did define the categories of global tech giants as the following: “internet search engines, social media, knowledge and video sharing websites, news aggregators, app stores and payment systems.” These are Anghami, Careem, Carriage, Fetchr, PayTabs, Noon and a few others tech giants that are on the rise within the region (RedHerring, Web). And so the question remains… how will they reach the world? Interesting enough, the answer was in an exciting article on tech giants entering the mental health field, with disregard to the clinical part of it for the sake of argument, one statement resonated and seemed simple yet genius, and so it goes, “with the number of smart devices (i.e., smartphones and tablets) reaching into the billions worldwide, there are increasing opportunities to harness their power and multi-functionality…” (Tech Giants Enter Mental Health, Web). There it is, the answer all along lied in communication, connection and the big data generated accordingly.
Tech Giants around the world filled in the holes by meeting people’s needs and wants, ones they didn’t even know existed, and that’s how they made it to the big leagues. Now with the emergence of big data and agile connectivity, Arab Tech Giants have the chance to reach customers they didn’t know existed using big data through customisable products and services overlooked by global tech giants. In a nutshell, what makes Arab tech giants great is localisation and customisation of products and services. And so, creating the want, turning it into a need, customising it, and localising it will synergistically lead to an Arab digital globalisation. Are you ready for the next game-changer?
Bibliography:
Eyre, Harris A., et al. “Tech Giants Enter Mental Health.” The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Wiley-Blackwell, 1 Feb. 2016,<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wps.20297>
Moore, Martin, “Tech Giants and Civic Power.” King’s College London, Mar. 2016, <https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/cmcp/tech-giants-and-civic-power.pdf>
“Nature vs. Nurture.” GoodTherapy.org — Find the Right Therapist, GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog, 28 Sept. 2018, <www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/nature-versus-nurture.>
“The Top Five GCC Startups to Watch Out For.” Red Herring, 12 Oct. 2017, <www.redherring.com/top-story/top-five-gcc-startups-watch/.>