Innovation beyond copying and Arabising
Regional entrepreneurs are finally moving beyond simply copying a global concept and delivering it in Arabic. For copy-cat innovation to succeed, it needs to be localised to be a painkiller for a particular social construct.
From freelance work marketplaces to online food delivery platforms to fitness class booking apps, the Arab world has seen its fair share of ‘me-too’ innovation. But few survive beyond the first couple of years. And there are logical reasons for this.
Simple Arabisation of an existing concept rarely works. Very often, the market from which the business model originates is either different from or more digitally evolved than the Middle East, which necessitates fundamental changes to a product or service.
“This is truly something I have heard pitched hundreds of times, and I agree. For some segments, like gaming, it may make sense to simply Arabise. But, essentially, there is no innovation in just making something bilingual. It also needs to be localised,” said Rola Fayyad, Founder & CEO of ViaVii, a Jordan-based tour guide app that helps travelers discover experiences around the MENA region based on their location and interests.
While Arabising or copying existing ideas could be a recipe for failure, localising them is another story.
“You need to differentiate between Arabisation and localisation,” agreed Mohammad Abu Musa, an independent marketing automation consultant based in Amman. “When it comes to Arabisation, I think we’ve moved past that, which is having a business model that’s successful and doing a basic translation and introducing the model as is,” he said.
“This has failed in the past because such companies could not adapt to the local culture. Some companies copied adopted a global model as it is, without taking into account considering the differences in the local. Many entrepreneurs and investors have realised that will not work anymore,” Abu Musa said.
Considering the local market
The other business model is one that’s doing well outside and has been adapted, customised and improved for the local environment in the Middle East. This model takes pains to resolve a particular problem in society. It involves localising ideas in a way that fits with the culture, whether in advertising or customer support or in the service itself.
The advantage of this approach is that the start-up does not begin with the uncertainty that carries high risk, instead beginning the journey on a successful footing. It is also a good starting point for more disruptive ideas.
“I think this model will work and can be very beneficial, especially for FinTech start-ups, because we can avoid the risk that big companies have taken elsewhere and only tackle the local issues we have,” explained Abu Musa, who has worked with more than 40 start-ups in the region and beyond, supporting them in areas such as customer acquisition, marketing automation and process optimisation.
Noor El-Fadl, founder of Amman-based tasmeemME.com, the first regional online network dedicated to empowering Arab creative talent, notes that unlike many international markets, which are saturated with ideas, the Middle East has room for innovative thinkers.
“The start-up scene in the Arab world is fresh and young. There is space for existing global innovations with a few cultural tweaks. Why wait for international companies to come and localise things and capitalise on the market opportunity when we can do it?” she added.
What Arab start-ups need to keep in mind is the unique conditions of the Middle East. For example, there are a lot of cash-on-delivery services in the region, something that wouldn’t work in other parts of the world, where digital payments are more advanced.
The Arab world also lacks freelance job websites because people still prefer to meet face-to-face and the idea of doing everything online and ‘meeting’ virtually is still new, according to El-Fadl. “Globally, people have already gotten to this point, so we could bring in such ideas, but change them to suit our culture and make them work for us,” she said.
Benefitting society
Recalling her experience with tasmeemME.com, El-Fadl said that she initially launched the site in 2009 as a creative network to connect job seekers with projects. Five years later, she shifted the focus to promoting Arabic content to address the needs of the region’s creative talent base. Along with that, the site facilitates job matchmaking, online learning, collaboration and networking, and offers a digital marketplace.
Today, tasmeemME.com is one of the largest creative networks in the Middle East, with a user base that has grown from 30,000 to 200,000. The platform has helped thousands of people — from fresh graduates to stay-at-home moms to aspiring designers — secure full-time, part-time and freelance employment.
“There is a segment of society that can speak English, has studied abroad, and can work abroad; these people will continue to use global sites like Behance or Dribbble. They have no problem putting their portfolios on international websites and they may use tasmeemME.com if they want to take up jobs in the region.
“But I had to tweak the platform to benefit my audience. I had to change it to target Arabic speakers because I realised the design scene in the Arab world was nowhere near where it was in the West. So, it’s about figuring out things that will work where you are and bringing maximum benefit to the people around you,” El-Fadl said.
Arabisation can succeed only if entrepreneurs introduce it as an added value, not as their unique selling point or first-mover advantage, added Fayyad. She says that the right mindset is to break barriers with uniqueness, and carefully watch market trends to find a painkiller, which should not be mirroring a certain project in Arabic to serve the MENA region.
“If there is no delight to consumers, they won’t be interested, especially with hundreds of similar ideas launched. I am a firm believer that the entrepreneurship funnel should start in high schools, to embed the mindset for our youth, which will impact the future of innovation,” Fayyad said.
