RIYADH, 11 October — An Arabic e-newspaper, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, was launched on Tueday, heralding the dawn of a new era in Saudi journalism.
Bab.com opened its doors to the Internet community with its news content that includes 16,000 pages on its website, divided into 200 categories. An innovative feature of the new e-newspaper is that it is WAP-enabled.
This allows mobile phone users to receive Arabic news or e-mail in Unicode characters specially developed for the electronic journal.
A built-in archiving system makes it easier for the reader to turn back to previous stories for background information on breaking news. The coverage includes political, economic, government, social, sports, health, technology and entertainment stories constantly being updated.
The launch ceremony, held at the Riyadh Sheraton Hotel, was attended by a large gathering of invitees from the telecommunications and mass communications sectors.
Speaking at the official launch, Dr. Walid Al-Twerqi, CEO of Rawnaa for Specialized Communications, said they were the prime mover behind the project, for which SR20 million ($6 million) has been provided by a group of Saudi investors.
He said the launch of Bab.com was a challenging task as a lot of technical problems had to be overcome. "But we managed to do it with dedicated teamwork and with the help of experienced journalists."
Dr. Al-Twerqi said the response from the Internet community has been encouraging and he cited, in particular, Prince Sultan Foundation’s support to the project.
Dr. Muhammad Al-Aqeeli, professor of computer science at the College of Computer Sciences, King Saud University, spoke of the planning stages leading up to the launch of the e-journal. He explained how they had to plot their path carefully by learning from the mistakes of others.
Dr. Aqeeli added that the launch of Bab.com marks the culmination of that effort.
Later, speaking to Arab News, Ammar Bakkar, editor-in-chief of Bab.com, pointed out that a distinctive feature of the e-journal is that it is the only one of its kind in the world to have Arabic WAP site that can be read on any cell phone.
"It has a lot of content. You can create your own personal web page on your mobile phone and even check your e-mail with the help of WWW.Bab.com/WAP."
He said they have signed up with the Saudi Telecom Co. to become their Arabic content provider for STC’s WAP services.
"In fact, our team developed the language — Unicode — that enables one to read Arabic characters on any type of cellular phone," he said.
As a result of their ability to provide content, Bab.com business services has been able to provide full content to 14 magazines published in the Kingdom.
Speaking of their future plans, Bakkar said the e-journal would be involved in developing websites for their clients.
"In fact, we have developed the first phase of healthgulf.com. We have professional programming that can work with any web development language under all web environments," he observed.
Setting up of specialized "Bab.Clubs", such as auto, telecommunications, beauty, women’s, travel, teen and fitness clubs will provide platforms for Internet surfers in different walks of life to interact with one another, chat online, and share their experience by becoming e-club members, he added.
