There have long been concerns in the UAE, and the rest of the Arab world, that Arabic is being pushed aside in favour of English. The finger of blame for this has been pointed at Western media – specifically the American television and film industry and, more recently, the internet. The lion’s share of online content is in English.
As The National reports today, surveys suggest that an overwhelming majority of the estimated 140 million Arabic speakers who use the internet would prefer to access information in their own language. The bad news is that much of the information they want simply is not freely available to them. It is estimated that only a small percentage of Arabic content is readily accessible, with much of it hidden in private forums, on social media or as low-quality translations. While this is clearly a problem, it also suggests an opportunity for those willing and able to provide both Arabic-language content and the means to access it.
Already working to fill this void is Taghreedat, an Arabic digital content community-building initiative based at Twofour54 in Abu Dhabi that is involved in converting social-media platforms into Arabic. As co-founder Sami Al Mubarak points out, this makes great sense because Arabic is the seventh most spoken language world wide. While it started from a low base, the online use of Arabic is growing faster than any other language.
Moves towards more Arabic on the internet certainly accord with the UAE’s vision. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched an Arabic digital content initiative last year, with Dh25 million allocated to improve Arabic-language content over the next five years. Similar initiatives are underway in Abu Dhabi and Doha, while international player Yahoo entered the fray in 2009 by buying Maktoob, the biggest Arab internet services company.
As with television and film, the biggest opportunity lies in the provision of original content specifically designed to engage, entertain and inform Arabs in their own language. Again, the UAE is in an excellent position to be a leading provider.
For content providers based here – be they news organisations, social networking platforms or individual commentators – quality is key. Providing excellent content will not just bolster Arabic as a language in this country, it will open the way to a vast regional audience.
COMPANY PROFILE:
Name: Envision
Started: 2017
Founders: Karthik Mahadevan and Karthik Kannan
Based: The Netherlands
Sector: Technology/Assistive Technology
Initial investment: $1.5 million
Current number of staff: 20
Investment stage: Seed
Investors: 4impact, ABN Amro, Impact Ventures and group of angels
2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
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Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
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Storage: 128/256/512GB/1TB
Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
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I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
Colours: burgundy, green, phantom black, phantom white, graphite, sky blue, red
Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees
Tom Sleigh, Graywolf Press
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5