YaDig is the Middle East’s largest local reviewing community, with over 225,000 users per month reading and reviewing local businesses in their city.”, according to Andrew Miller, Marketing Director of YaDig.com.

“People use YaDig every day to find the best places to go to, as well as to ask advice from their local community”, he explained, adding that businesses use YaDig to engage their target demographic, to hear their customers’ voices and to increase brand awareness, footfall and overall revenue.

Tadreesna is a Jordanian L.L.C. company established in 2011 in partnership with the MENA region early stage and seed investment company Oasis500.

Tadreesna is funded by King Abdullah II Fund for Development; and aims to enhance e-learning using the internet in a simple, interactive and safe way.

Feesheh, a Jordan-based startup, is an online one-stop-shop for Arab musicians.

According to Co-Founder and CEO, Mrs. Nur Alfayez, it’s the first of its kind in the region, offering everything from guitars and other musical instruments, as well as music-related accessories and helpful English and Arabic content for musicians.

Internet business is flourishing in Saudi Arabia, and young entrepreneurs are driving this boom, with over 60% of the population under the age of 25, a press release said Thursday.

Drawn by the exciting climate of entrepreneurship in the KSA, ArabNet, the hub for Arab digital professionals and entrepreneurs to connect and learn, will be holding its first-ever conference in Riyadh in 2012.

“It is not the critic who counts. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly.”

With these words, quoted from Theodore Roosevelt, Seeqnce announced the Grand Finale of the 2012 Seeqnce Accelerator Program (SqP2012), an evening where 8 new technology startups will take the stand for the first time, having been chosen to receive cash investment, as well as 6 months acceleration services from Seeqnce, in order to turn their idea into a successful business.

“A workshop in the dark! Priceless. This is the spirit =)”

Nader Dagher, SqP2012 semi-finalist

A team from Lebanon won first place at the 5th annual Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Arab Business Plan Competition. Their product, Butterfly, a tool that helps swimmers keep track of their training, was selected from over 4500 applicants aiming for the first prize of $50,000 USD, a press release said Tuesday.

The final 14 teams were selected from 50 semi-finalists. Dominating the competition were teams from Egypt, who made up half of the selected finalists. The second and third prize of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively, both went to Egyptian teams.

Crowdfunding is not a new concept abroad, however it does feel like it is just starting out in the Middle East. Crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter, have seen much success, as they help talented individuals fund a wide range of projects with the help of passionate, like-minded individuals pledging support to help bring their ideas to life.

Aflamnah is the Arab region’s first crowdfunding website. It was launched during the Cannes film festival on July 1st, and aims to change the perception of crowdfunding to the public of the region.

Many people in Lebanon know how frustrating and expensive it can be to receive a speeding ticket. Aside from the initial monetary costs of fines, further frustration arises and more costs are incurred when a driver has not paid a fee on time, simply because he or she was unaware of the ticket in the first place.

Speed Ticket Lebanon, available on Android and iPhone, was designed to provide a safe, user-friendly way to track your speed tickets in the simplest way possible, keeping drivers aware of how many tickets they may have. It provides on-demand information that may be otherwise difficult to find about fines incurred on a certain car.

Due to the malfunctioning of the IMEWE international fiber optic line linking Lebanon to international internet capacities, Lebanon plunged into an internet blackout Wednesday evening. However, this did not stop 30 aspiring entrepreneurs focused on founding the next big startup from demonstrating their skills in typical entrepreneurial fashion.

The applicants were the 30 chosen designers from the 2012 Seeqnce Accelerator Program (SqP2012), all of whom passed the first stage of selection. The internet blackout began a few minutes before the first Shuffle, which was taking at the Seeqnce Accelerator Space in Hamra, an evaluation event designed to test and assess their skills as a further process of elimination and gradual progression towards SqP2012's final 8 startups.