The new Middle Eastern portal of Orientation’s global network experienced a surge in users with the news of the American and British attack on Iraq.
“Weve had a significant increase in the number of visitors, both from within the Middle East area and from around the world.” said Gerrie Lim, Orientations editor-in-chief. “This vindicates our purpose as a portal, conveying news and views in a regional context.”
The regional portal has received about a third of its visitors from the United States and ten percent from the Middle East.
In addition to posting news headlines from regional newspapers, local online news sources, and global news providers like CNN and the BBC, Orientation Middle East provides access to around 30 Middle East-specific Usenet discussion groups and IRC chat channels.
“Of particular note has been soc.culture.iraq,” said Phil Ingram, Orientations marketing manager. “Anyone who wants an idea of how Middle Eastern residents feel about the current actions of the US and British governments, for and against, should pay this newsgroup a visit.”
“The #kuwait1 IRC chat channel has also been quite busy. They are taking a sincere interest in events across the border,” he added.
Orientation has six other regional portals including Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Oceania.
This week, Orientation also launched its United Arab Emirates country portal. It is the fifth country portal site to be launched by the portal network this year following sites for Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Romania and Kenya.
To produce and manage the UAE site, Orientation formed a joint venture with Commedia, a leading UAE multimedia communications agency.
“Orientation UAE should be your first port of call, if you want access to the UAE online community,” said Francois Le Guillou, Commedia’s Managing Partner.
