A two-day hackathon for business ideas that aim to enhance the Arabic content on the Internet will take place on Saturday, 25 July.
The free-to-attend event has been organised by TURN8, a Dubai-based seed accelerator for technology entrepreneurs, and will take place at The Cribb, a workspace in Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 established by TURN8 and Innovation 360.
Participants will compete for the prize of pre-qualification for $30,000 in equity funding from TURN8.
According to research by Criterion Global, an international intelligence and strategy agency, 413 million users in the Arab world are projected to be on the Internet by 2015, while only three percent of current online content is in Arabic.
In a recent article, The Guardian states that less than 0.2% of global digital content is hosted in the Middle East and North Africa, although native Arabic speakers represent about 4.5 percent of the world population.
The accelerator is particularly interested in innovative business or technology ideas relating to Arabic digital media, web or mobile applications, Arabic education and e-learning enhancements, Arabic social media innovations, and creative e-commerce solutions for the Arabic market.
The two-day event will fast-track the development of these ideas by helping participants to form a team, connect with other creative people and talk to industry experts, and will end with a pitching exercise.
The winning idea will be chosen by the selection panel consisting of Yousif Al Mutawa, chief information officer at DP World and TURN8’s accelerator programme director, Kamal Hassan, founder and CEO of Innovation 360, and Tariq Syed, business consultant at Innovation 360.
If interested to participate, please visit turn8.co
