Egypt Information Technology Report Q3 2010
Egypt's IT spending is expected to increase from US$1.4bn in 2010 to US$2.6bn by 2014. BMI forecasts that Egyptian IT market growth will remain below pre-economic crisis levels in 2010. Growth is expected to bounce back in 2010/2011 as the external and public sectors lift the Egyptian economy, but unemployment and the threat of inflation could act as an inhibitor on spending.
Over BMI's five-year forecast period, Egypt will also benefit from youthful demographics and improving information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, despite a number of constraints and a sub-optimal distribution network outside Cairo. The Egyptian market is one of the most resilient in the region, but a steep fall in imports in 2009 provided a warning that the impact of the global slowdown on consumption may not have played out yet.
In 2010, a number of factors should help IT spending growth to recover, including new hardware and software upgrade cycles as well as sales of Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system. Economic recovery, tenders delayed from 2009 and higher incomes boosted by pay raises for civil servants and other groups should help to keep IT sales on an upward trajectory.
Industry Developments
In April 2010 the Bank of Alexandria signed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) arm of the World Bank to support Egyptian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) informatisation. Under the agreement, the Bank of Alexandria will launch a localised and freely available version of the IFC's SME Toolkit web platform in both English and Arabic. The SME Toolkit offers online business management information and other interactive tools and educational resources.
Utilizing the internet as a tool to enable businesses - of any size - to achieve their strategic objectives, by optimizing internet competitive intelligence, investing in dominance of internet businesses and building relationships with webmasters to achieve competitive advantage.
SEO
Search engine optimization ( SEO ) is the process of improving the volume and/or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines, via natural search results through increasing the positions of a web site within the search engines, using careful analysis and research techniques.
SEM
Search engine marketing ( SEM ) is a form of emarketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) through the use of contextual advertising
Viral Marketing
Viral online marketing refers to deliver your marketing message based on online word of mouth technique, through social networks and online communities in order to build brand awareness and achieve other marketing objectives.
SMO
Social Media Optimization ( SMO ) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites.
Banner Ads
E advertising is the most common form of online marketing. eMarketing Egypt will provide customers with both outsourced services (managing and dealing with online advertising agencies).
Email Marketing
E-mail Marketing Is a form of direct marketing, which uses electronic mail as a means of commercial communicating. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.
Online B2B Marketing
Online B2B marketing is managing the online marketplaces accounts for businesses that sell goods or services in the local market or in the global market. Effective and Efficient management of these accounts will be translated into sales leads and opportunities.
Online Competitive Intelligence
eMarketing Egypt will provide online business decision makers with decision support and intelligence solutions that will include mainly More