ArabNet Digital Summit 2013: What We Know So Far...

The region’s largest gathering of digital executives and entrepreneurs is only weeks away. This year’s Digital Summit will take place in one of the region’s most vibrant economies, Dubai, where it will look back at the biggest developments in the regional web and mobile landscape and look ahead to another year of exciting opportunities and trends.

In addition to panel discussions, talks, and workshops, this time we’re adding exciting new formats such as the Digital Showcase, which will provide up-and-coming digital enterprises with the opportunity to connect with major clients and strategic partners, and the Roundtables, consisting of in-depth discussions by some of the region’s top digital leaders in investment, ecommerce, and media.

We thought that this would be a good time to give you a sneak peek at what’s coming this June...

Everything You Need to Know About the Gaming Landscape: Business Models, Distribution Platforms and Beyond

What are the hot trends in the gaming sector? What are the most popular types of games? What’s new in monetization, and what is the role of telecom operators in this process? What are the best distribution platforms, and what is the optimal strategy for each? 

To answer these questions, today we are sharing the "Enabling Game Development" panel from the ArabNet Beirut 2013 conference.

And as a bonus, we're throwing in a hands-on workshop on Corona Labs, a cross-platform mobile development framework.

Inforgraphic: Mobile Content Consumption in MENA

Among the 149 million unique visitors in MENA over the month of December, 48 millions visited news websites in the local language while 12 million visited news websites in English. Entertainment is the second most popular topic with 35 million unique visitors, followed by business & finance: 14 millions, and mobile focused websites: 13 million.

On average 19% of this activity takes place on a mobile. If we break that down onto the categories listed above, we seen that 96% of mobile focused websites are accessed from mobile, local language news sites rank second with 29%, while English news websites' mobile access drops to 12%. Entertainment, the most popular theme is least accessed on mobile with 12%.

Curious to know which are the top 5 local news websites?

Hsoub Launches its Affiliate Marketing Network

The local online advertising space keeps picking up steam. After several major announcements from regional players Hsoub and ikoo, Hsoub is back again today announcing the launch of its new Affiliate Network.

The network allows publishers to publish and distribute offers and promotional material by advertisers on blogs, forums, or through social networks or email messages. The publishers, aka affiliates, earn money from each purchase, conversion and from new customer referred to the advertiser’s website.