Saudi Arabia: Qanawat, the Middle East's leading mobile value-added-service (VAS) provider, has strengthened its regional presence by opening its first office in Saudi Arabia.
The new Riyadh base joins existing offices in Dubai and Cairo and will further improve customer relations in Saudi Arabia, helping to acquire localised content and broaden Qanawat's service portfolio through providing dedicated local resources.
Saudi Arabia is a priority market for Qanawat due to its large population and high ARPU (average revenue per user) performance. The company plans to open additional offices in Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia next year.
Adnan Omar Al Obthani, CEO at Qanawat, said: "Qanawat celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2011 and over the last decade the company has acquired a reputation as an innovator, introducing a diverse service portfolio built with strategic insights into regional customer needs. We have achieved considerable success and our customers rank among the top mobile operators in the Middle East and North Africa. As the mobile VAS services space matures, I see Qanawat playing a more significant role in harnessing the attractive opportunities available across emerging markets in the MENA and Asian region."
A pioneer of the mobile VAS concept in the region, Qanawat now provides services to 40 mobile operators in 21 countries across MENA and Asia, reaching more than 250 million consumers through its content and services. Qanawat's service portfolio today includes not just mobile content and VAS services but also mobile advertising, smart-phone applications and mobile portals.
With improvements in telecom infrastructure, the Middle East mobile market has grown at a fast pace. As voice markets mature, operators are looking at VAS to differentiate and maintain growth. In this scenario, Qanawat has been playing a key role in supporting Middle East operators with its services.
The Middle East is a key region contributing to the growth in the global mobile value-added-service (VAS) market, which is estimated to expand from revenues of US$200bn in 2009 to US$340bn in revenues by 2014, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.
In 2005, Qanawat was the first company to launch a mobile content downloads service in Saudi Arabia for games, wallpapers and Shabiaat Al Cartoon videos.
In 2006, Qanawat became the first in the region to provide a managed service solution for RingBackTones. In 2009, Qanawat spun off the Shabiaat Al Cartoon animation business unit into Fanar Production, a fully operational production house for multiple animations products. Qanawat's top-selling content catalogue now accounts for up 70% the GCC market in Arabic and Islamic digital content sales.
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About Qanawat
Qanawat (meaning 'Channels' in Arabic) is a mobile VAS provider of various comprehensive mobile content and services such as Mobile VAS Managed Services, Mobile Advertising, Content Aggregation Apps and Mobile Portals across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Qanawat also holds the digital rights of the largest and top selling Arabic music and Islamic mobile content compilation in the Middle East and North Africa.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Dubai, UAE, Qanawat has strategically teamed up with about 38 Tier 1 mobile operators in 21 countries, over 200 local and international providers of high quality content and several key players in the mobile advertising arena.
Qanawat has office presences in Dubai, UAE,Cairo, Egypt and Riyadh, KSA with extensive operations in the Middle East and North Africa.
For more information visit www.qanawat-me.com
Media contact:
Andrew Kennedy/Vikas Prabakhar
ASDA'A Burson Marsteller
a.kennedy@asdaa.com
Tel: +971 4 334 4550
For further information on Qanawat please contact:
Alejandro Alhambra
alejandro@qanawat-me.com
Source: http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20120108094004/Qanawat_opens_first_office_in_Saudi_Arabia
