I think this is still true today. Anyone can whip up a web application in a matter of days, creating a differentiating experience is a bit more tricky and definitely needed. I think this is even more important for many of the Arabian online startups that are providing services that are essentially the same (or highly similar) to American and global ones. In this scenario, you definitely need an incentive to attract people to your application. You simply can not offer the same exact services, and nothing more, and yet expect people to flock to your app.

The folks at Ikbis seem to believe in this as well. So far they have launched a bunch of competitions (the Ramadan one, the airplane one, the singing one), and now, they have launched their own comedy/variety show (called Ground Zero). …. it’s not all sweet-&-dandy .. they have their issues but that’s another story

Anyway, Ground Zero is quick weekly show that has 3 segments: Doblage (Film Dubbing), Lost in Translation, and new movie releases. It is a quick weekly refresher from your hectic life, so go ahead, give it a try

Here are the 2 published episodes so far:

When i checked back today however, i did find that the Ikbis folks were true to their words. They did in fact replace the “Palestinian Territories” with Palestine, and for that i sincerely and deeply thank them.

Thanks again Ikbis for your prompt response, for your great product, and for listening to your users.

And for now, i leave you with this funny April’s fool prank featured video

However, as i was creating a user account on that site today, i was shocked to see that they don’t list Palestine as a country. Instead they listed it as the Palestinian Territories. I am shocked to see this from an Arabian company based in Jordan. As far as i know, Jordan does recognize the state of Palestine, so why doesn’t Ikbis ? Other Jordanian websites (such as Maktoob and Jeeran) do list Palestine as a country, so why not Ikbis ? Are we being disowned by our brothers in Ikbis ? Not long ago, Facebook created a swarm of protesting users after it removed Palestine as a “network” on their sites (which ultimately resulted in reinstating that network), so why is Ikbis afraid ?

I know, i know, Ikbis probably did not mean to make a political statement in this. I bet they also sympathize with the Palestinian plight. Most likely, they made this move so that they can grow their site in peace without worrying about politics. However, come on! this is a very small gesture, and it doesn’t seem to hinder other sites from growing and prospering, even sites with global audiences, so how about sites with an Arab audience ?!

So, dear Ikbis folks, please list Palestine as a country.
I am also interested in seeing what do my dear readers think about this .

Note: In all fairness, i didn’t notify Ikbis about this issue until Qabbani mentioned that below.

By the way, for some reason they missed translating the word “Sex” in the Arabic registration form. What’s wrong in saying جنس after all, that is how it is reported on your passport :-p