A Dubai-based digital media company is in advanced talks to manage the mobile phone marketing business of ikoo, the biggest advertising network in the MENA region. Sagar Shetty, the director and co-founder of Clique Media, said that the mobile advertising market in the Middle East remains untapped with more than 285 million page views being accessed every month. That is the number of websites people are looking at on their mobiles in the Arab world.
"Now, we want to be able to add all the local businesses on there [the mobile Web] and our aim is to add an additional 40 to 50 million page impressions," Mr Shetty said. Clique Media has partnered with several international mobile advertising platforms including AdMob and Mojiva over the past several months to become their regional partner, Mr Shetty said. "Just like AdMob has all these [mobile] websites in English, we're trying to mobilise all the local websites to make a local mobile ad network in the Middle East," Mr Shetty said.
AdMob is currently involved in a US$750 million (Dh2.7bn) acquisition from Google but has yet to close following scrutiny by US anti-trust regulators. For Clique Media, ikoo represents a major opportunity. The network produces ads for 120 websites and has a reach of 1.4 billion page views a month. "They don't have a mobile site right now," Mr Shetty said. "We're talking to them and we're saying, 'we'll build your mobile site, get ads on there and we will sell them.'" Although the share of the mobile advertising market in the overall sector remains small, it is expected to grow significantly in the next few years as marketers shift their budgets online.
In Egypt, for example, the mobile phone platform now represents 40 per cent of revenues for the country's largest digital advertising business. Online advertising - of which the mobile segment is currently a small fraction - is expected to more than triple its share of the ad sector from 4 per cent last year to 13.4 per cent by 2014, according to recent research by the consultancy Booz and Company. Clique Media has been involved in six regional mobile advertising campaigns in the past eight months including ones for The Economist and the Abu Dhabi Formula One.
It is also working with Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) to develop its mobile strategy, Mr Shetty said. ADMC owns and publishes The National. Mr Shetty said the Middle Eastern mobile ad network would begin to see traction after two years once more people adopted smartphone devices that were able to view contextual advertisements on mobile web browsers. "For us to get everything on the ground and ready and for advertisers to understand how it works, it's going to take a little while," he said.
dgeorgecosh@thenational.ae
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Godzilla%20x%20Kong%3A%20The%20New%20Empire
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PAKISTAN SQUAD
Pakistan - Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Aamer Yamin, Rumman Raees.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
READ MORE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
What is 'Soft Power'?
Soft power was first mentioned in 1990 by former US Defence Secretary Joseph Nye.
He believed that there were alternative ways of cultivating support from other countries, instead of achieving goals using military strength.
Soft power is, at its root, the ability to convince other states to do what you want without force.
This is traditionally achieved by proving that you share morals and values.