King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) Vice President Prince Turki bin Saud will patronize the ArabNet.me’s Riyadh conference to be held at the Four Seasons’ Hotel on Dec. 3-4.

“Prince Turki bin Saud has been supportive of our projects. We have a collaboration with KACST, which supports efforts to develop technology entrepreneurship in the Kingdom,” Omar Christadis, Arab Net.me’s founder and president, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

The conference is the biggest gathering of digital professionals and entrepreneurs in the Kingdom. There will be 80 speakers during the two-day event expected to be attended by 800 digital experts and entrepreneurs.

“It will serve as a meeting place for digital entrepreneurs and professionals, and a platform for people to meet, know each other, share expertise and probably agree to do online business together,” said the 30-year-old Christadis who hails from Lebanon.

He said that the conference will have two competitions as a fillip. These are the so-called “Ideatone” and “Start-Up Demo.” Regarding the first one, young Saudi entrepreneurs will be asked about their online business ideas. The one to be chosen will be given two minutes to present it onstage.

“If anyone among those present is interested, he could talk to the Saudi entrepreneur afterward and help him by investing in the business or by being a partner,” he said. The other one is “for more mature people.” They take up the idea (for an online business idea) and go into production.

A cash prize goes to the winner for online business idea while a trophy awaits the entrepreneur whose business idea is being implemented.

“The digital business has enormous potentials, to use an understatement. In Saudi Arabia alone, the business is estimated at $28 million at present. It involves online transaction like shopping for various products, buying plane ticket, hotel reservation, among many others,” he said.

He added that in the Arab world, the business could be in several billion dollars once the market is fully-developed.

He added that, on one hand, the Kingdom is one of the world’s biggest market on Twitter and on the other hand, the fastest growing market in the world for Twitter..

“It gives you an idea how fast this market is growing in terms of social media. Saudi Arabia is the number one country in the world for YouTube consumption over Mobile per capita. So, just imagine how much YouTube consumption is in this market considering its population,” he said.

Moreover, in addition to consumption, many young Saudis have also launched YouTube channels, which have become extremely popular, he added.

“They’re getting 1 to 2 million viewers per episode and they’re being approached by iconic brands like Seven Up, Almarai, among many others, to sponsor the show and advertise in it. So, we’re seeing the whole business that’s being built on digital media,” he said.

Christadis said that Arab Net.me has been organizing conferences for the last four years and has a start-up database, which is publicly available.