These are the lands of opportunity, and on such surprisingly fertile sand many a business empire has grown. There is a feeling of positivity, that anything is possible. Those who have had the privilege to be in the region over the last twenty years have seen many home-grown brands flourish. From an incongruous start in the corner of her children’s toy room, Jane Drury founded and nurtured two such brands that
remain at the core of ME Digital Group.
Dubai-based expat, Jane Drury launched ExpatWoman.com in 2002, an early entrant to the digital landscape. “At that time there was such a huge gap between the perception and the experience of living here. Immediately, I was inundated with concerned questions from typically, mums, whether their children would be safe.” Responding personally to reassure was soon untenable and thus the EW forum was born. Before any social media took root, ExpatWoman was the only and undisputed source of anything you needed to know.
Dubai was growing fast, and with glorious PR to share, putting itself on the global map. ExpatWoman takes its place in the history of the 2000s, encouraging new residents to come, to work in the city and to bring their families. And so started a decade of increasing need for more clinics, more schools, then secondary schools, more housing, the launch of property sales and everything that comes with successfully building a healthy, safe, vibrant city and tourist haven.
ExpatWoman’s reach to a continuous stream of newcomers naturally and organically extended to an events programme that grew in response to interests and needs, with core themes of beauty, health, mother & baby, entrepreneurship, and larger family events.
“Pre- the rise of Google, there was no digital business model to follow, no ad servers or cpm. We modelled our business on the print industry selling advertorial and shared banners on time rotation. No one had a digital budget and the agencies were committed to print. Our pioneer sales teams had to
persuade our many hundreds of direct clients across all industries, to take a chance on something new.”
With a corporate background in finance and stats, for Drury, the indisputable measurability of traffic was the winning argument for the web. Together with the rise of mobile, the future of the digital economy was assured. “We were fortunate to ride the two great curves of the digital revolution and phenomenal growth of Dubai.” The site of course reached a global audience, acquiring global site ExpatWomen.com. And with corporate advertisers eventually turning to web, launched dedicated sub-sites, EWFood.com,
ExpatMum.com and EWmoda.com to align with key industry channels.
Taking its own trajectory, Cobone.com had been launched in 2010 and gained traction equally across Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Fast-tracked by venture capital, latterly owned by Tiger Global (Souq.com), significant investment grew both reach and top line sales. Drury was exploring
fast-growing e-commerce to add to the EW portfolio, and in January 2015 acquired the site.
Cobone is another home-grown brand for this region with strong and enduring legacy. “Cobone was a pioneer. Creating a buzz whilst establishing trust. Things have moved on so quickly but these were relatively early days for people to be entering credit card details and purchasing online.”
Today Cobone is firmly established as the leading offers site across these two great countries, and widening its scope of operations. “We like to think we share the joy of living in this region. We promote a wide range of services from the day-to-day to the high days and holidays, always assuring good
value.”
Known for activities, beauty and entertainment, the company is forging new industry alignments to combine increased variety with hyper-targeted curation of offers for audiences across the reach of both its established brands.
Internally, the leadership team have a clear vision and road map that starts with primary investment focus on tech. “SaaS-based marketing options unlock a host of possibilities for diversification and both socio- and geo-segmentation.” Drury continues. “We are catering for audiences who are digital-savvy, globally aware and quick to respond to any new developments in the market. AI will send another seismic ripple through the industry. We can’t exactly predict the future, but for sure we’re enjoying the journey.”
Source: ME Digital Group
