Networking with more net less work

The online jobs portal Bayt.com to launch sites for business sectors.

The Gulf is known for an abundance of networking events and now the imminent launch of a regional LinkedIn-style web platform promises yet another opportunity to exchange business cards. Bayt.com, the online jobs portal, is preparing to launch a service similar to the popular LinkedIn networking site, which will target professionals in the MENA region.

Bayt Communities will be a network of sites focusing on different sectors of business and will allow users to set up profiles, make contact with industry peers and comment on business articles. "It's the region's first professionally driven social networking site," said Ali Sinaei, the head of commercial content at Bayt.com. He is in charge of Bayt Communities. "It will be a platform where users can follow each other, communicate with each other and read the latest industry news and features. It will improve your chances of building a better career and network with people around you."

MarketingHub.me, the first site to be launched under Bayt Communities, will go live next month. It will be followed by sites geared towards other sectors. "Each major industry will have a community. We're looking at technology, human resources, business and finance. We're also doing affinity groups for the professional female community and the graduate community. By the end of 2011, we hope to have nine or 10 communities launched," Mr Sinaei said.

"We want to be reaching at least 50 per cent of all professionals within each industry in this geography. We don't want to set our sights low," he said. LinkedIn ranks as the world's 26th most-popular website but does not figure in the top-100 most visited sites in Saudi Arabia, the largest market in the Gulf, according to data from the web information company Alexa.com. Only 4.6 per cent of internet users in the MENA region are LinkedIn members, a survey conducted last month by Effective Measure showed.

Mr Sinaei acknowledged that Bayt Communities would duplicate "a lot of the things LinkedIn does" but said the network would differentiate itself in three areas. "One is that it is industry-driven. The second is that we will have a lot more content than LinkedIn does. The third is that it's regional - it will be focused on the Middle East and North Africa." Bayt Communities will attempt to "seed conversations" among its users by aggregating content from other sites and creating original content. An "awards system" will recognise the most active users but will not offer financial incentives.

The site would attract revenue in three ways, including by carrying advertising, Mr Sinaei said, declining to specify the remaining two strategies. Robert Salomone, the head of Starcom IP, the digital media buying and strategy arm of the media communications company Starcom, said Bayt.com was attractive to advertisers but doubted whether people would want to sign up for another social networking service.

"It's one more password to remember ? There are so many other options out there to do networking," he said. But he said the industry-specific articles on the site could prove attractive to advertisers. "The local content has the potential to be quite interesting. It's a wait-and-see approach." [e-mail]