It has been 25 years since the first domain name was registered and recent reports indicate that the number is approaching 200 million. The internet and the "dotcom boom" have revolutionised the way we conduct business. In the UAE some notable large and small local businesses have thrived online over recent years.
In 1996, Emirates was the first airline in the region to launch a portal offering booking services, according to Boutros Boutros, the company's Divisional Senior Vice-President of corporate communications. The company was also among the first to introduce a baggage-tracking system.
Fast growth
Launching a website has benefited both the airline company and customers. "The online booking system has developed from ticket delivery to being able to print. It's changed the face of the industry and has spread all over the world. In the past few years, our sales have more than doubled, increasing by 50-60 per cent," he said.
Although people were sceptical at first about putting their information online and would like to hold a paper document when they travel, online booking allows them to carry nothing else other than their passport, he said.
Although not on such a global scale as Emirates, the local website ExpatWoman.com has become a well-respected community reference providing all kinds of information, mostly targeted at women in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
"It's what I would have liked to have found before I came here," said Jane Drury, Managing Director of ExpatWebservices, which owns ExpatWoman.com. Drury moved to Dubai in 1997 after a career in management accounting in London and Italy and taking time out to have a family. Then she was looking to do something different and launched ExpatMom.com in 2002, which she rebranded as ExpatWoman.com in 2004.
The site written by women for women provides a range of services, including a window on the region for newcomers, job advertisements, free classified advertisements, deals, book clubs, forums, education information, coffee mornings and themed events.
The forum is a very active board, on which people discuss issues such as settling, relocation and education. The business, managed by 15 people in a Media City office, started with online services and has expanded to print and events. "The growth has been gradual and steady," Drury said. ExpatWoman.com now attracts 94,000 readers per month, who visit the site about three times and spend an average of 30 minutes. "That's the huge value of online over print," Drury said. Anybody can look at any section on the site for free. Those who want to participate in the monthly polls, surveys, contests and forums have to register and get a weekly e-mail with updates and events information.
Out of the box
Ritu Patel founded Creative Box in April 2009. She creates original personalised hand-made cards, boxes and scrapbook albums, ranging from Dh200-Dh2,000, for special occasions such as birthday parties and baby announcements. Prior to starting her home-based business, Patel worked in advertising in Mumbai, India. Three years ago, she was on unpaid leave. "It turned out to be a boon to realise a dream," she said. She quit her job and transformed a hobby into an online business in Dubai.
Since then, she has created a Creative Box blog (thecreativebox.blogspot.com) and a page for her business on a networking site. "Most of the orders come from these places and word of mouth," she said.
So what does it mean to run a dotcom business? For Creative Box, solely run by Patel, there is an accounting book with invoicing and delivery orders. Because Patel only manages cash deals, people order online and then come pick up and pay for the items at her house. She has about 40 clients, many of whom are recurring, and can be working on six orders in a week. She supplies her cards and boxes to several retail outlets in Dubai. "My goal is to open a boutique store so that people can walk in and pick up the products I make," she said. The busiest time of year for her business is Diwali, Christmas and Valentine's Day.
Twin branches
ExpatWoman.com has become a large enterprise with two sides to the business. "We provide services as close to free as we can make them and sell most of our advertising on annual and monthly contracts. And the other side consists of looking for sponsors [we don't work on click-through]," she said. Thus the company has two trade licences — for advertising and publishing.
"ExpatWoman.com is based on an advertising model, so companies are attracted to advertise with us to reach the audience we have and target a particular interest group [such as newcomers]," Drury said.
But how has the recession affected these businesses?
For ExpatWoman.com, the downturn has had a positive impact on the site. "The expat population of Dubai has grown. We get more traffic each month. We went from six million hits in a month in January 2009 to ten million in December," Drury said.
Similarly, Creative Box has been doing well lately. Because the business is about giving people home-made and personalised objects, people don't weigh them against money, Patel said. "I haven't been affected that much by the recession. Scrapbooks, for example, contain memories, so people don't worry too much about the price."
The challenges
What are the challenges of keeping an online business successful?
According to Boutros, technology is a big challenge when hosting an airline website.
"When you have a global facility, you can control the technological aspect to a certain extent because you have to use suppliers and invest in servers for data storage. Also, we need to keep the site simple, accessible and user-friendly," he said.
Technology is fast advancing in terms of software, so airlines have to redesign their sites to enhance it every few years. "In 2009, we introduced the mobile version of Emirateairline.com," Boutros said.
For Drury, the challenge is to keep improving the site and collaborating with partners to bring more services. In terms of practicality, the stickiness aspect of the site, with people returning, means it has to be updated regularly.
"The nearly 40 sections on the left side of the site are updated every first of the month; deals are updated as they come in; and the forum about every ten seconds," she said.
