Abjjad

Abjjad is the first Arabic social network for readers, authors, and bloggers in the Middle East.[1][2] It was launched in June 2012 by Eman Haylooz and Tamim Al Manaseer.[2][3] The website enables readers to sign in and have their own account, create their own virtual library where they have three lists: previously read list, currently reading list, and planning to read list. It also allows members to rate books, write their book reviews, add quotes to authors or books pages and enrich authors' pages with related information.[4]

Abjjad
Type of site
Catalog and community
Available inArabic
CEOEman Hylooz
URLwww.abjjad.com
RegistrationFree
LaunchedJune 2012 (2012-06)
Current statusActive

About Abjjad

Abjjad was designed in Arabic to attract Arabic readers and authors to a one social network. It also aims to provide an accurate and enormous database for Arabic books and authors.[5] Through providing an easy to use platform and sophisticated search engine, members can easily search for books or authors in Abjjad.[6] Moreover, Abjjad contains a lot of book reviews and recommendations.[4] Each author's page has enough information about him in addition to his quotes page which is enriched by the members. Abjjad recommends a variety of 10 books each week and a weekly article written by one of the members.[5] It also allows members to follow each other, or follow authors or books to receive notifications once a new review has been added about the books or new information was added in the writer page.[4]

Abjjad is linked to Amazon which provides Abjjad with an extensive database of English books making it easy for members to find English books. In addition, it includes more than 30 thousand Arabic books.

Members of Abjjad call themselves "Abjjadyeen" which created a brand for the website and helped in spreading it around the Middle East. The website is featured with the "Abjadyya" where members can use to filter what to appear on their timelines from members' status, book reviews or book ratings. The "Abjadyya" is a status a member can write and share with his followers where they can like and comment on it. Members of the website tend to use the word "Abjadyya" to refer to other members statuses.

History
Eman Hylooz, Founder & CEO

In May2012, Oasis500 provided Abjjad with the seed funding to launch the website.[7] In June 2012, Abjjad was launched with a budget of 15 thousand dollars.[7] Within the first three months more than 10 thousand members were registered in Abjjad.[8] Abjjad has participated in different local and international forums to meet several investors and entrepreneurs. In October 2012 Abjjad participated in Global thinkers forum in Amman, Jordan where Eman Hylooz, founder & CEO, presented the concept of Abjjad, its vision and future plans[9][10] In mid-December 2012 Abjjad participated in Global Entrepreneurship in Dubai where it was presented to investors as a start-up and a new project in the Middle East.[11] In February 2013 Abjjad was one of ten startups MENA apps has nominated from Jordan and Palestine to participate in startup Turkey.[12] In May 2013 Abjjad participated in World Economic Forum in Amman, Jordan[13] and later in June 2013 participated in Arab Net in Dubai.[4]

By the end of 2013 Abjjad won the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Best Arab Start-Up Business Award for 2013.[7] During 29 October 2013 till January 2014 Abjjad has launched their campaign for crowd funding through Eureeca[7][14] Abjjad managed to raise US$161,000 in 88 days from 43 regional donors, over US$40,000 over its initial target.[7][14]

Features
  • Organizing books into three lists: previously read books, currently reading books and planning to read books.[2][7][15]
  • Following readers, authors, or books.[4]
  • Searching for books, know its rates and read reviews about them which help you to build an idea about books you are looking for[1][2]
  • "Abjjadyyat" which enables you to view other members' statuses, books they have finished and rated, their reading lists and reviews.
  • Abjjad provide you with a list of the most active members so you can follow them.
  • Sharing your progress in a book with your followers.
  • Writing book reviews and rating books from one to five stars.[2][4]
  • Enriching the authors' pages with adding information about them, adding books they have written or adding quotes from their books in their quotes pages.[3]
  • Adding books you can't find in the website by using add a book feature.
  • Writing an "Abjjadyya" which is a status to share with your followers where they can like it and comment on it.[3]
  • Linking your Twitter and Facebook accounts to Abjjad to share your books ratings and reviews.
  • Abjjad provides a recommendation of 10 books on a weekly basis which helps you to find new books to read.[5]
  • Abjjad publishes an article per week which is written by a member of the website.

Statistics

There are more than 39,000 members in the website, which draws 300,000 page views per month. The website has recorded more than 11,000 book reviews, more than 60,000 book ratings and members have added books to their lists more than 120,000 times.

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum prize

Abjjad has won the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Best Arab Start-Up Business Award for 2013 session.[7]

Abjjad in the media

Abjjad has taken a huge interest in the Middle Eastern and western media; the author of Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East, Christopher M. Schroeder, has interviewed Eman Hylooz and wrote about her experience with Abjjad in his book.[1] In addition, France24-Monte Carlo Doualiya has interviewed Ms. Hylooz on Retweet program to discuss Abjjad idea and provide the latest statistics of the website.[8] Moreover, Sky News Arabia interviewed Ms. Hylooz to relate her experience with Oasis500 and Eureeca in Abjjad's crowdinvestment campaignPage text.[16] furthermore, Al-Aan TV interviewed Ms.Hylooz in ArabNet in Dubai, 2013.[4] Abjjad has been mentioned on Oasis500 website as one of the five startups which the company funded and gained different prizes.[17] Wamda,[7] Mediame[2] and crowdfundinsider[14] have discussed Abjjad's experience in the corwdinvestment on Eureeca. And the expert in the Arabic literature in English, M. Lynx Qualey, has interviewed Eman Hylooz in March 2013 to talk about Abjjad's story of success, how it differs from other social networks and what are its future plans.[5]

References
  1. The New Middle East: Women at the Center of a Startup Ecosystem, Pt. 4.
  2. "Abjjad.com embarks on crowd investing as a means to raise funds on eureeca.com". Archived from the original on 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
  3. Eman Hylooz Speech at GTF.
  4. آراء عدد من المشاركين في قمة عرب نت الرقمية 2013.
  5. Abjjad: An Arabic Social Network for Books with a Big Vision.
  6. أبجد : حيث تبدأ القراءة !. Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Abjjad exceeded its goal on Eureeca by 30%; what's next for the Arabic reading social network?.
  8. "أبجد" أول شبكة تواصل عربية للقراءة.
  9. GTF 2012 awards for excellence. Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Jordan’s women celebrate success.
  11. Oasis500 Holds 8th Angel Network Event during Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Dubai.
  12. "MENA Startups pitch at StartupTurkey Event through MENA Apps partnership with Etohum". Archived from the original on 2014-01-04. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
  13. Jordan to Host World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in 2013. Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  14. Award Winning Startup Abjjad Successfully Raises Equity on Eureeca.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-29. Retrieved 2014-05-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "أبجد" موقع الكتروني يجمع هواة القراءة.
  17. "خمس رياديات أردنيات من صندوق أويسس 500 يتفوقن في محافل عربية ودولية". Archived from the original on 2016-05-29. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
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