First multi-content bilingual portal for women Jawhara.me launches in Middle East

Dubai, UAE has been chosen as the location for Jawhara's permanent offices, with bloggers and an editorial team also providing updates from across the GCC, Levant and North Africa.

The launch announcement was made during an event held at the Monarch Dubai, in the presence of Mostafa Kamel, Managing Director of LINKonLINE and senior officials from the parent company OTVentures, an Orascom Telecom for Media and Technology subsidiary, headquartered in Egypt. It was also attended by Jawhara.me editors, bloggers and management.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kamel said, "The Internet and its applications now rank among the most important aspects of our working and social lives. Since the company was established in 2004, LINKonLINE has been the force behind some of the Arab world's largest and most active portals including Masrawy.com, Yallakora.com, and Otlob.com. With the launch of Jawhara, we are adding to a unique digital platform line of products that responds to the interest and demands of more than 72 million internet users across the Middle East - a figure that is increasing daily. As more than a third of those online in the Arab World are women, we believe that our new site is designed to meet a very real and growing need among our target audience."

Kamal added that Dubai was chosen as the location to launch and headquarter Jawhara.me based on the strength of the UAE as a business and commercial hub, and Dubai's particular strengths as a media centre.

Rasha Abdul Hadi, Business Development Director of OTVentures in the Gulf, said, "We live in a fast-evolving society where there is a need for news and information to be generated by the second, in line with an ever-growing demand. At Jawhara.me, we provide women from across the region with a portal that presents them with a window of the world in real time; covering the stories, subjects and issues that really matter to them - both serious and fun."

Abdul Hadi noted that the idea of launching a bilingual online portal was based on a wealth of studies, research and data. Figures from Internet World Stats indicate that there are more than 70 million users of internet in the Arab World, representing just over 30% of the population as a whole. In the UAE, this figure is much higher, with 70% of the population online. In the Middle East, women form more than a third (34%) of total Internet users, representing around 24 million women. The majority of this number seeks health and social websites to visit.

"With Jawhara.me we are creating a digital portal that contributes to the role of woman in each of the different aspects of their lives including relationships, entertainment, beauty and fashion, parenting and pregnancy, home and art, legal advice, finance, technology and weddings. As well as written content, the site's video gallery includes 'How to Videos' covering subjects like cooking, hair and make-up, exclusively shot for Jawhara.me," Abdul Hadi added.

Jawhara.me's Closet section will feature exclusive daily articles from five bloggers across the Middle East covering art, events, latest happenings, beauty, wedding, fashion and home. "The articles and events are diverse, exclusive, up-to-date, fun and most importantly, real," said Abdul Hadi. "Women will be also offered professional guidance from experts including a special allergist and dermatologist, plastic surgeon, dentist orthodontist, and chemical engineer as well as a lawyer."