Media business in Arab states growing

Though change is commonly perceived as positive development in all aspects of human activity, exceptional cases are always there. This is the core of the prolonged debate about globalisation in the Arab World. Nevertheless it's widely agreed that change is creeping into our lives whether we like it or not. New media is a stark example for this.

New media here refer to two main mass communication vehicles: satellite TV channels and Internet (with all associated tools like WAP). Economic change means transformation of centrally planned economies into market-oriented liberal economies.

According to this definition, new media has had a great impact on our lives in the last decade and is bound to continue in the coming years. Worth noting here is that media business is part of the mainly growing sector in global economy: service sector. It's also an essential tool in re-shaping global market these economies are part of.

Recent years witnessed many Arab businesspeople venturing in media. This breaks the longstanding hegemony of governments on media. As political change in the region is still crawling, most of private media ventures focus on business.

Except for a couple of media outlets, entertainment is the dominant product of private media business. Some business ventures are based on profit driven policies targeting a share of the region's advertisement and sponsorship market. That market capital is less than one billion dollar, almost two thirds of it in the Saudi market.

Satellite TV and Internet outlets, soaring in numbers in the last few years, pushed governments to lure such investments into their countries. Free media zones become phenomena characterising the last few years of previous century. Amman, Cairo, Beirut and Dubai are competing to get as many private media businesses in through new liberal regulations in specified zones.

As such venues are almost real state providers, they have to satisfy customers with the required infrastructures: from power supply to data communication networks. These projects activate other businesses on the sidelines.

So far, the region is in the boom phase with a new satellite channel every now and then and a new website emerging. Until the leveling phase leading to the settlement of the phenomena, we can't judge the business feasibility of these projects.

It's true that the boom will lead to too many outlets to appear. But with the increasing number of users in the region, both for Internet and satellite TV, prospects for development and sustainability of many media business are growing.

One of the businesses closely linked to media business is communication. Growth in mobile phone usage in Africa and Arab world more than doubled in the past two years. In 2001, about 25 million people became mobile subscribers.

In the lead is Saudi Arabia and Turkey. To show the strength of the trend, mobile phone revenue in the region stood at five billion dollar last year. Growth in the sector led to liberalization of the market with Algeria, Morocco & Tunisia for example selling mobile licenses to foreign companies.

Liberalisation of media business sector is coming, sooner or later. One should assume that free media zones are just prelude to scrap government control on media. Abolishing Information ministry in Qatar and later Jordan is expected to be a trend. Even Syria, known for its iron control on media is expected to loosen the grip and allow somewhat independent media outlets - at least online.

Though some of the media ventures could fail to get the projected share of ads market, others are getting along. Leaving the competition to market factors, with customers' choice the decisive element is exactly what the free market is all about. Thus media business is giving an active example of economic change sought in the region.

As interactive TV is still a long way ahead in the Arab World, New Media's role as a change drive is almost educational. The legacy of media as a tool of shaping public opinion is still tainting the new media ventures in the region. Governments used this tool to secure its political stability, private businesses are bound to use it to secure profitability and promote their interests. In doing so, mew media creates an inflow of information that gives customers more choices.

Globalisation promoters think of new media as essential vehicle to highlight what's known as "critical mass of success". For example, to emphasis the benefit of liberalising service sector or using Internet in business in a TV show is more influential than any other statement. In a TV show you tell people a story, in a more convincing way than any figures or graphs.

Persuading people to connect to the web is becoming a main virtue of the new media, though using Internet in business is still nascent. It's now mainly used in Business-to-Business, especially in the IT advanced areas of the region, like Dubai for instance. But with some shopping-on-line websites now operating in the region, this sector is bound to grow more.

Information dissemination is growing, but not as rapid as associated services: communication technology, and Satellite TV outlets. Some regional businesses are contemplating investment in content provision to meet the expected demand of the growing new media.

Here comes the significance of change required to create the proper environment for freedom of information. Whether economy is the driving engine for politics or vice versa, change seems to be inevitable. And the role of new media in lubricating change engines is crucial.

Since September 11th attacks on U.S., and the following war in Afghanistan, media focus turned to politics and ideology. Now it's time to balance between political and business news coverage.

With the rising interest in Islam since the attacks, many voices in the Arab World began calling for the need to have a media outlet to reflect the true image of Islam. Business could be the best vehicle for this. Islam, like capitalism, recognises the freedom of enterprise with the institution of private property, the market system and profit motive. It only works in a moral environment, which the West is aspiring for.

New media, by propagating change, is already tarnishing the image foreigners held of Islam.

These are such quick examples of how the new media trend is pushing change and benefiting from it in a two-way process. Some may have their reservations about the phenomena, but practice is the criteria.

During DotCom boom, we heard voices expecting a complete bust of the bubble, and then some web-venturers lost while others became more established.

This could be the result of new media boom in the region. Let's wait and see. I'd like to end with Darwin's words: "It's not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent ones, but the ones that are most responsive to change."

The author is an Arab journalist based in Qatar.