Digital Snapshot of hotels in Qatar

                                            

Qatar is today one of the fastest growing economies across the globe. The small gulf country with a population of just 1.87 million enjoys a per capita Gross national income (GNI) of over USD 80,000. Qatar, where the economy has so far been dependent on vast oil and natural gas reserves is now making swift forays into various other alternative sectors, hospitality and tourism being one of them. Qatar’s tourism industry is still in its nascent stage compared to rival UAE; however it is evolving very fast. Huge investments are undertaken to develop state of the art hotels, convention centers, restaurants and service apartments etc. Most of the world class hotels have started building their presence in country.

Given the fact the tourism is one of the sunrise sectors in Qatar; our research team at Mixilion has undertaken a task to do a detailed analysis of the digital presence of the hotel industry in Qatar. Some of the key insights of the research analysis go as follow-

• Digital Presence- The digital presence of the various hotels in Qatar cannot be very easily generalized. The overall digital presence varies from one hotel to another. There are hotels with very strong digital and social media presence, where as there are ones were the digital strategy seems to undefined.

• Social Media- Some of the hotels seem to have a clear cut social media strategy. For instance, W Doha Hotel and Residence. The hotel has over 12,000 Facebook fans. The overall content strategy which is a blend of international appeal and the local charm appears to be very appealing. On the other side of the spectrum there are many hotels which are yet to realize the importance of a Facebook page.

• Background Color- White is one of the preferred background colors for the website. However there are hotels with background color as black and others as well.

• Contact Us- In the contact us section, most of the hotels have put their phone numbers, however most of them (baring few) haven’t put their email ids. However it is essential to understand the fact that for many, emails are the preferred mode for initial communication.

• Testimonials and Feedback- Many hotels in Doha have not realized the importance of testimonials and feedbacks. Only a very few have put testimonials on the home page of their website. For a place like Qatar, which is relatively new on the tourism map, having a testimonial and feedback section can be a brand booster.

The Mobile Advertising Market in the Middle East

  

While doing some research work I came across a wonderful presentation by Wael Quader, CEO, Noqoush a mobile media agency catering to the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The twenty two minute presentation is quite insightful in the context of mobile advertisement in the MENA region. The fact that Noqoush is audited by Effective Measures, a premier research agency adds further credibility to the presentation. One can go through the video by following the given link- The Mobile Advertising Market in the Middle East- Wael Quader.

As finding quality statistics is a real challenge in the MENA region, I just thought of extracting some key statistics and insights from the video and write a blog-

·         Total number of mobile phone subscribers (2012) in Middle East stand at 250 million.

·         The total number of internet users in Middle East stand at 77 million, out of which around 35 million access internet through mobile phones.

·         One of the biggest markets in the Middle East in terms of mobile usage is Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It has a subscriber base of 53 million out of which around 11.3 million access internet through phones.

·         Three biggest markets in terms of ad requests are- KSA, UAE and Egypt.

·         Popular mobile application categories include- Games, social messaging, video streaming, music and entertainment and news and sports.

·         Types of mobile ads include- Simple, dynamic and rich media. Rich Media- 70% of users are interested in rich media. Rich media will play an important role in the near future.

·         Click through rate (CTR) - CTR is a measure of effectiveness of ad campaigns. It is equivalent to the no. of times a click is made on an ad divided by number of impressions. (The number of impression is the number of times an ad has been served). The following graph will give some insight about the CTR for some of the MENA countries.

        Fig 1: shows the CTR for various Middle Eastern countries.

In the given context there are two important points to be noted. 1^st CTR is not always a sufficient measure for effectiveness of ad campaigns as effectiveness also depends on the number of ads served. For instance Qatar with a CTR of 0.9 seems a better option than KSA which has a CTR of 0.6. However the reason for slightly lower CTR in KSA’s case could be the high volume of ads issued. 2^nd the statistics given over here are with respect to AdFalcon , Noquosh’s advertising platform and hence cannot be generalized.  

Digital Media and Strategic Analysis of Football Clubs in Qatar

Foottball is very popular in Qatar, with large number of clubs located across various regions such as Doha, Al Rayyan etc. In the next ten years Qatar will be conducting the biggest Football event, the world cup in 2022. Govt. is seeking huge investments to develop state of the art infrastructure. Preparations for World Cup 2022 coupled with a young demographics and high per capita income will further boost the popularity of the game.

Keeping all this in mind the article has been prepared. The purpose of the blog article is to provide across the spectrum analysis of Football clubs based out of Qatar. The information in the report could be used to consult Football clubs devising their digital strategy besides managing their brand image and sponsorship deals as well. Findings in this report were drawn from online resources such as club websites, sponsor’s websites, club social media pages, web analysis tools such Alexa, local newspaper websites and other Football related websites and blogs.

1.0 Qatar: a brief introduction

Economy

Qatar is one of the richest nations in the world. The small gulf state with a population of 1.8 million has been blessed with immense amount of petroleum resources. The overall current GDP is 182.98 Billion USD and per capita GNI (Gross national income) is USD 80, 440.

As a part of its long term strategy Qatar is diversifying its economy into other alternate areas such as tourism, sports, real estate etc.

Fig 2: growth of internet penetration in terms of percentages of population for Qatar. Source: World Bank.

                            Fig 1: GDP growth rate of Qatar. Source: World Bank

Qatar: Demographics

The estimated population is around 1.8 million, with population skewed towards the younger population. Around 22 percentages of population is aged below 14, whereas more than three fourth of the population is aged between, 15 and 64. Only 1.5 percentages of population is aged above 64. The median age is 30.8- 32.9 for males and 25.5 for females. Qatar also has a very high urbanization rate with 96 percentages of inhabitants living in urban area.

Qatar: Mobile and Internet Consumption

High GDP growth rate and per capita income coupled with a young population has resulted in high mobile and internet penetration for Qatar. According to World Bank, it is estimated that around 81.6 percentages of population have access

Fig 2: growth of internet penetration in terms of percentages of population for Qatar. Source: World Bank.

Internet is primarily used in Qatar for social networking and connecting with friends. According to a survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov, 94 percentages of respondents have a Facebook account. 72 percentages of respondents spend more than three hours online. Other important activities include watching video clips and listening to music.  

According to Qatarisbooming.com, Qatar’s mobile penetration stands at 182 percentages, compared to the world average of 76. Qatar is seeking huge investments in the ICT infrastructure.

Qatar: Sports  

Qatar is transforming into sports capital of Middle East. It has made huge investments in developing state of the art sports infrastructure.

Its efforts in transforming into a sporting hub of international repute, paid off in December 2010, when it was declared that World Cup 2022 will be conducted in Qatar. In the coming years, the gulf state will be seeking huge investments to develop state of the art stadiums, hotels and infrastructure. Qatar is also hosting Hand Ball World Cup 2015. In the recent past it has organized Asian Games 2006 along with international level annual Tennis, Golf and Motor Race events.  It has also bid unsuccessfully for Olympics 2020

Basic Observations

Some of the basic observations that has been observed are-

a)      Clubs are cash rich in Qatar and most of them have a healthy mix of local as well as foreign talents- both in sporting as well as managerial work force.

b)      It appears that many clubs may not have a very clear sponsorship strategy in place. It can be assumed from the fact that, many clubs do not feature the name of their sponsors on their website. Neither much about the sponsors can be gathered from the internet.

c)      Newer forms of media such as web, mobile and social media are transforming the existing media space. For countries like Qatar, young demographics coupled with high internet and mobile penetration further intensifies the significance of newer media. It appears that some clubs are still not aligned well with web, mobile and social media platforms. This can be partly explained from the fact that many of them are missing out on using polls, forums and shopping carts in their websites. Many clubs do not have focused social media strategy. Also there could be lot of other innovative techniques used such as QR codes, which can help engage fans better with the help of mobile platforms.

d)     Many of the clubs do not have bilingual websites. It may be difficult to understand, as Qatar has large number of expat population. Also as many clubs want to have international standing in near future, having website in English is unavoidable.

e)      It calls upon the some clubs to use more and more corporate social responsibilities in the form of health and fitness awareness programs for the local populace. This will help them engage better with the local populace. Also CSR should be well represented on the club website.

Image Credit: 2014rioworldcup.com

African Telecommunication Market- Key Insights

                                        

Besides digital media, telecommunication is one of the sectors that have always excited me. Partly it is due to the close relationship it has with the digital media and partly because I have been offered some research assignment on telecom sector in the recent past. Based on my readings I have been doing recently, I have tried to build a small snapshot of the emerging telecom landscape in African continent. Most of the readings are derived from Com World Series blogs.

Mobile penetration in Sub Saharan Africa will reach 54% by the end of 2012, up from 28% in 2007.

Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world. By 2015 the overall investment in the telecommunication sector is expected to reach USD 1.5 billion.

African telecom market is considered to be a very high competition intensive market.

96 % of Africans are on prepaid traffic.

Often mobile is the sole mean of communication.

SMS is very popular. Integration of SMS and OTT can offer a great area for exploration.

Fraud and error result in 15% of revenue loss in Africa. In contrast it is just 1% and 2.8 % in Europe and North America respectively.

Revenue per customer is low.

The Inter Operator Rate (IOT) is very high in Africa. It eventually results in high international roaming rates in the sub continent.

In African context, music is one of the very important contents.

The overall smart phone penetration in Africa stands at 15 percent, half of the global average of 30 percent. However it is picking up in many low per capita income countries as well. Also many of the countries have started exploring LTE (4G). This includes Egypt, Libya, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa. It is expected that by 2015, the overall LTE subscription will be around 11.15 million in Africa

Technology and telecommunication services in businesses and SME are considered to be high growth segment.

The overall smart phone penetration in Africa stands at 15 percent, half of the global average of 30 percent. However it is picking up in many low per capita income countries as well. Also many of the countries have started exploring LTE (4G). This includes Egypt, Libya, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa. It is expected that by 2015, the overall LTE subscription will be around 11.15 million in Africa.

As of 4Q, 2010 the biggest African market in terms of subscribers is Nigeria. This is followed by Egypt, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco.

As of 2Q, 2011 the Seychelles has the highest mobile penetration of 181 percent. This is followed by Botswana (133), South Africa (115), Morocco (110) and Tunisia (108).

South Africa is one of the biggest markets in the continent in terms of high end services. It accounts for more than 50 % of the fiber optics. In 2013 it will be focusing more and more on high end services such as video streaming, video conferencing, electronic newspaper and money transfer.  

Egypt is the biggest market in the North African region with 8.82 million mobile (100% penetration) and 7.62 million 3G subscription as of 2011. North Africa’s strengths lay in its youthful and colorful people, high purchasing power (compared to Sub Saharan Africa) and growth prospects in data services. Its challenges lay in intensive competition, saturated market and political uncertainty.     

Telecom service providers should offer a basket of service from which consumers can select desired services. Coming to business customers, they need to play a strong consultative role. 

Image Credit: focusafrica.gov