DUBAI // Google says it is standing by to help budding singers who want to follow Justin Bieber's path to global superstardom.
The young star's break was made possible because of his videos on YouTube, which is owned by Google. Bieber's talent was spotted online by showbiz tycoon Scooter Braun, who went on to become the Canadian teenager's manager - and the rest is music business history.
Google's Dubai-based Middle East and North Africa (Mena) operation has a dedicated department that helps performers and others make the most of the opportunities offered by the video-sharing website.
"In this office we have teams that deal with YouTube partnerships," said Maha Abouelenein. "So if someone wants to becomes a YouTube partner and they'd like to make money and grow their business and have special branding and become a YouTube star, then this is the department that helps them."
Advice for making effective YouTube videos includes creating the types of content that have proven successful in the past, and enabling comments and engaging users through social media.
A clear and accurate title, meaningful description and good keyword tags help viewers to find videos. And a YouTube partnership programme helps people to make money if their videos do go viral.
Mohamad Mourad said: "We're giving people the platform, the tools, and the support to make great things happen and grow big audiences."
The Dubai office has a number of departments such as community outreach and sales and marketing, as well as a section that helps businesses to use Google services and another that works with government departments.
The company has held specialised training sessions in the UAE for policymakers and officials from 48 federal and local government bodies. The training is designed to help the public sector use technology to enhance its work and engage with citizens.
Ms Abouelenein said: "We help governments to understand how they can be more like a company and benefit from the internet."
She said an example of the type of project the team would help with is the Google+ social network page of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
"Sheikh Mohammed has more than 200,000 followers," she added. "The technology helps to bring leaders closer to the citizens, so they want to know the things they can do to do that."
The office is home to a unit that provides Arabic translations of Google products such as Gmail and YouTube. The team is led by Dr Fayeq Oweis, who is also responsible for a number of other languages from across the region.
"What we do is, any services or products that Google releases in English, we provide the localisation in Arabic or the other languages, so it goes to the users in their own language at the same time," he said.
Mr Mourad said there was a need for more Arabic content on the web.
"The percentage of users online in Mena versus the percentage of content in Arabic represents a huge gap and we know users in Mena are coming online for local content," he added.
With this in mind, Google last year launched a programme called Arabic Web Days. A month-long series of online and offline events was held across the region to accelerate the creation of Arabic content.
Mr Mourad said the company was bringing local culture online in other ways, such as Google doodles, the special on-screen logos used to celebrate holidays, famous people and events.
And he reaffirmed the company's commitment to the region, saying: "We have been inspired by how users across the Arab world use the web and we want to be able to grow in Mena. We have been investing in the region and will continue to do so."