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Souq.com's CEO on Building an E-Commerce Powerhouse in the Middle East
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Reference: HBS-R1705A-E
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Number of pages: 5
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Geographic Setting: Middle East
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Publication Date: Sep 1, 2017
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Source: HBSP (USA)
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Type of Document: Article
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Industry Setting: E-commerce;Online retail
Description
In 2005, when Souq.com was founded, the Middle East had tremendous potential for e-commerce: Its total population was more than 350 million, half of whom were younger than 25. But the region was highly fragmented in terms of laws and customs, logistics, and payment infrastructure. Mouchawar tells how Souq grew from auction website to B2C-only business by enabling alternative payment methods and managing delivery in a region where basic logistics systems were still evolving. The largest e-commerce provider in the Middle East today, Souq operates in seven countries representing more than 135 million people--and it was recently acquired by Amazon.