The country has witnessed a growing trend in local app development among startups and other companies in Qatar, according to an entrepreneur involved in the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ (MoTC) ‘Digital Transformation of SMEs’ workshop series.
Mufeed Ahmed, who led a workshop yesterday at the Katara Art Centre inside Katara – the Cultural Village, said in the past two years as many as nine apps had been developed to cater to Qatar’s growing grocery delivery service.
The trend, Ahmed said, shows that there is a requirement for this type of service, and that people are getting “more involved” into using local apps for everyday use.
“This is on the consumer level, and there are some online companies that had shifted their services to an app. Six or seven years ago they had an events section but now they have an events app.
“Two years ago, another online company started using an app for their classified ads, so there is definitely a growing local market for people who are using apps and that’s just on one side. The other side is that a lot of companies that we work with are using apps for their internal operations,” Ahmed told Gulf Times.
Most of these companies, he said, are usually facilities management companies or logistics management. Ahmed also said plans are in the pipeline to launch a couple of new apps by Qatari startups.
Another Qatari startup is now developing a valet parking app, which would be launched in the market in the coming period, Ahmed said. Citing expats in Qatar who have been using apps for their day-to-day activities in their own countries, Ahmed said Qatar’s leading position in terms of network infrastructure and high mobile phone and Internet penetration, will cater to many people “when given the opportunity to have convenience at a touch of a button.”
Similarly, Ahmed said the role of the government, particularly the MoTC, had boosted the confidence of many companies and entrepreneurs to step up their services using technology.
“The MoTC has taken a big step in bringing all these companies and sectors online; when the country started spending to build an ecosystem, entrepreneurs felt confident and comfortable in discussing their ideas and coming up with different startups,” Ahmed said.
During yesterday’s workshop, Ahmed discussed steps to implement a tech startup using either an app, or a website. “We want to help entrepreneurs when making a decision whether to spend money and time on an app or build a website, Ahmed said.
He added: “A lot of tech startups come up with ideas and sometimes they end up building apps that nobody wants to use…the workshop aims to help them in deciding how to transfer this value to the customers using either an app or a website, or other technologies that are available.”
Ahmed is the co-founder of Qubicle Innovations, a Qatari startup that was incubated at the Digital Incubation Centre in 2014. Qubicle is among the 20 technology service providers that are specialising web presence, e-commerce, and cloud solutions.
Ahmed: Local apps for everyday use in vogue.
