The National Blog

The National Blog


PR firm finds 15 million people that haven't deleted their Facebook account
Posted in: Beep Beep
Posted by: Tom Gara on May 24, 2010 1:04 PM
Tags: arab, facebook, social, SpotOn, Twitter


Spot On PR, who have done a good job positioning themselves as the go-to people for smart thoughts about Middle Eastern social media, have released a new study on Facebook in the region. (We have blogged about their useful twitter surveys in the past.)

Sure, the internet is going through a bit of a two minutes hate toward Facebook and its sketchy approach to privacy, and the site has already been banned in Pakistan due to the hosting of offensive cartoons. But it is important to remember that in the big picture, Facebook makes every other "big" thing - Twitter, the iPhone, Scandinavia, the airline industry - look positively tiny.

In the Middle East, the site is growing fast, but has not yet reached the email-like universal adoption found in Western markets - although it's only a matter of time. For now, 15 million people in the region are using the site, and the Dubai-based spin-doctors took a look of who they are and how you, oh Reputable Marketer, can bleed some money out of them.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/21/surprising-social-media-business-success/

Thanks to SocialNetDaily on twitter.

City of Life

The UAE'S Film industry is growing tremendously... but not as fast as it should when looking at other dubai-matic growth spurts. Finally, the world gets to see an excellent example of the genius of Emiratis....

City of Life is a (controversial?) movie about the lives of 3 different people in Dubai. A privileged Emirati, an air hostess and and cab driver. They all end up influencing each others lives in many ways however small they seem.

Directed by Ali F Mostafa. This movie has a brilliant (many brilliant) story lines, amazing scripts (3 languages are spoken in this movie English, Arabic and Hindi) , beautiful cinematiography, great soundtracks and brilliant editing. I really CANNOT describe how wonderful this movie is YOU MUST WATCH IT.

I CRIED SO MUCH THIS MOVIE THAT I CAME OUT LOOKING LIKE RUDOLF THE RED NOSE REINDEER.
Its a brilliant brilliant movie, I have not seen such an inspirational, refreshing and relevent movie such as this one.

Its a must see. (and the Emirati actors are hooooooooooot)


Official site: http://www.cityoflifefilm.com/