Ooredoo Pavilion at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. Ooredoo will display innovative mobile initiatives from across its footprint in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia at the event.
Ooredoo will showcase the impact of its “life-enhancing mobile services” at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona later this month.
The theme of this year’s Congress is “Creating What’s Next,” demonstrating how mobile technology is a catalyst for change and innovation.
In line with the Mobile World Congress theme as well as the company’s core promise of promoting human growth, Ooredoo will display innovative mobile initiatives from across its footprint in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Ooredoo Group CEO Dr Nasser Marafih said, “Twelve months on from revealing our new brand to the world at Mobile World Congress 2013, and committing our whole company to supporting human growth, Ooredoo has many examples of how we are helping customers enhance their life opportunities from our many markets. Ooredoo has achieved a great deal and we are now returning to the event with a full suite of initiatives that have supported innovation and development, as well as the hopes and aspirations of our customers.”
Following on from the global launch of the new brand in February 2013, Ooredoo achieved a highly successful launch of the new brand in Qatar in March that year. This was followed in North Africa, in Tunisia and Algeria, and Asia, in the Maldives, later during 2013.
Among the life-enhancing services being showcased on its stand, Ooredoo will display Indosat’s mobile money service “Dompetku” for customers in Indonesia; Ooredoo Tunisiana’s career guidance and financial literacy service called “Naja7ni” for youth in Tunisia- the first of its kind in the Mena region; and Asiacell’s “Almas” (diamond) line which has played a significant role in empowering women in Iraq, providing hundreds of thousands of women with access to mobile technology for the first time.
Demonstrating how it fosters innovation through local entrepreneurship, Ooredoo intends to bring to market a new range of apps, and support entrepreneurs through driving an innovation ecosystem across its markets.
For budding mobile entrepreneurs, Ooredoo provides expertise, funding, and exposure, while also partnering with leading research organisations, accelerators, and venture capitalists to support high-potential mobile apps.
Ooredoo will also feature the winning app of the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge, an Indonesian-based women-empowering mobile app called WOBE; and the winners of the Ooredoo-sponsored Arab Mobile App Challenge, as they compete against global mobile app developers in the GSMA University Mobile Challenge.
Ooredoo’s recently-launched research study, “New Horizons”, demonstrates the extent to which the next generation is looking to technology to provide jobs, education and to fulfil their aspirations for a better life. In the study, which surveyed more than 10,500 young adults across seventeen countries in the Middle East and North Africa region (Mena), 91% of youths said that they believe technology is the basis of a modern, forward-thinking and functioning society.
Uniting youth through the power of sport, Ooredoo and the Leo Messi Foundation will display a series of online stories, about how Ooredoo has enriched children’s lives across its footprint, as part of the ongoing “Play for Dreams” programme.
Ooredoo, as the official sponsor of the 2014 Ministerial Programme –events designed to bring together international regulators, government executives and national leaders–intends to use its programmes as case studies to urge governments, technology companies, and industry bodies to collaborate on strengthening the social impact of mobile innovation.
Ooredoo will argue that the industry as a whole needs to collaborate to remove the barriers that prevent people from accessing the full benefits of mobile technology. Using its own experiences from its broad range of community and innovation-based initiatives, Ooredoo aims to demonstrate that mobile technology can be a significant stimulus for human growth.