2013 Digest: Our Top 10 Stories of the Year

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Beirut Digital District
Dec 31 2013
Industry
2013 Digest: Our Top 10 Stories of the Year
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As we get ready to welcome a new year, we always find it fitting to look back at the past 12 months and pinpoint the biggest stories we’ve covered. In this article, we are letting you decide which stories were the biggest of the year. Based on our analytics, below are the most read articles of 2013. Starting at number 10…

10. An Arab B2B Online Platform Wakes Up a Sleeping Giant: the Story of SearchinMENA.com

The B2B online sector in the MENA region is a sleeping giant. Although there are more than 90 million online users in the Arab world, only 15% of companies in the region have an online presence and benefit from this widespread exposure. So it is not surprising that when Eng. Salim Akil surfed the internet in 2007 for medical equipment companies in Syria, his search resulted in nothing. This triggered the idea of launching an online directory for businesses in Syria, and SearchinMENA.com was born.

9. Ounousa, the Arabic Women Portal that Amassed 2.6 Million Likes

Ounousa is one of the leading Arabic web portals for women and lifestyle with a staggering 2.6 million likes on its Facebook page, which is ranked number one in “Women” category in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Social Watchlist. The portal aims to provide women across the Arab world with topics covering celebrity news, fashion, beauty and health, cooking, love and relationships, bridal, and internal design among others.

8. How DokkanAfkar.com Spices Up the Booming E-commerce Sector in Saudi Arabia

Every product on Dokkanafkar.com reflects the founder’s passion for creativity, innovation, and elegant product design. When answering the question about the source of their unique products, Ammar replied: “We found that there are a lot of local and international creative people and designers who have great products that can be appealing for people. We decided at this stage to collaborate with them and sell their brands through our website.”

7. Appsolutely Necessary: Dynamic Notifications

Dynamic Notifications will discreetly light up the screen once you get a notification and will let you peak at it by tapping on it. You can then either unlock your phone swiping downwards, or jump straight into the app by swiping upwards. You should know that the Moto X uses an AMOLED display, which means that when the notification warning is displayed, only a portion of the screen is actually lit, which consumes very little power. Your phone probably won't be able to do that, so you might end up putting extra strain on your battery.

6. The 7 Must-Watch Arabic Channels on YouTube

Long ago, the video killed the radio star, but nowadays YouTube certainly killed the blog star. Arabic vloggers are the micro-celebrities of the day. Many of them already moved to the traditional media, and others capitalized on the millions of views to generate ad revenues and secure strategic sponsorships. We combed YouTube searching for the most interesting Arabic channels, and we found out the following…

5. Apple Envy: Transform Your Android Device into iOS7 in 3 Steps

Apple brought forth a much needed revamp of its mobile operating system with the release of iOS7. When the iPhone was first brought to market, there were really no better looking mobile OSs around, it’s simplicity and elegance were unparalleled, and skeuomorphism was all the rage for a while. But with time, all the way through to iOS 6, the design updates remained minimal. The competition meanwhile kept getting better, faster. But now that iOS 7 is among us, we know that even the most die hard Android fans probably would not mind giving it a test drive at the least. So here today we are bringing you a list of apps that will help you mimic iOS 7 on your Android device.

4. Our Top 10 Free Mobile Game Apps for 2013

It’s worthwhile to relax after work or study by playing a mobile game, but you really need a good game in order to enjoy your time. So we played a lot, really a lot, to list for you 10 great free mobile games for this year so far. All the games in the list are available for both iOS and Android. And most of them follow the freemium model, as they’re free to download and play; however, in-app purchases accelerate your rise to fame in the game. Here we go, but beware! Don’t let them get you in the loop!

3. Eventtus Raises LE 1.2 Million from Vodafone Ventures Egypt and Cairo Angels

An outstanding LE 1.2 million has been raised by Eventtus, an event engagement organization, in first-round funding from Vodafone Ventures Egypt and investors from Cairo Angels. This investment will allow the company to expand its platform and enhance its events services into new markets in the region. But the question is whether this funding will be enough for Eventtus to stand out in the crowd and shine among big competitors such as Eventbrite and Karasi.

2. The Only Arab Finalist in MassChallenge 2013.. The Story of Husni Abu Samrah

Husni Abu Samra, the founder and CEO of MobiStine for Arabic medical and health applications, concluded four months of acceleration in MassChallenge 2013 in Boston on October 30, 2013. MobiStine is the only Arab company that made it to the finals of the competition this year. MassChallenge, established in 2009, is considered to be the “world's largest accelerator”.

1. 10 Arabic Web Fonts You Can Use Right Now (5 Free + 5 Paid)

Back in 2006, a certain designer called Oliver Reichenstein, founder of the famed Tokyo based design firm Information Architects, declared that "Web Design is 95% Typography". His logic was the following: "95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography." Accordingly, we think you ought to check out these 10 Arabic web fonts that we've compiled for you, 5 free and 5 paid, cos as we've demonstrated above, web fonts are very very important.