Egypt’s Internet entrepreneurs: Resilient despite difficulties | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

Egypt’s Internet entrepreneurs: Resilient despite difficulties | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt



Egypt’s Internet entrepreneurs: Resilient despite difficulties
Mohamed El Dahshan


Beirut--As the best Arab start-ups and ideas were being feted at an honorary banquet at the ArabNet internet business conference in Beirut earlier this week, Egyptian ICT entrepreneurs went entirely unmentioned--and for good reason: of the ten competing fresh ideas by budding entrepreneurs presented in the first day, not a single one was presented by an Egyptian company.

According to Amber Lauretta, responsible for the new business ideas competition, only two submissions out of 39 came from the Arab world's most populous country. Not a single one of the start-ups featured in the competition, meanwhile, was Egyptian.

The situation begs the question: was Egypt's low participation reflective of a weakness in the Egyptian ICT sector?

Omar Soudodi, general manager of Souq.com, was disappointed at the low level of participation by Egyptian entrepreneurs, but strongly believes in the local entrepreneurial spirit. “Right off the top of my head, I can think of two Egyptian companies that could easily be in the best ten start-ups, and maybe even win this competition," he said.