US embassy cable - 05TRIPOLI4

C O N F I D E N T I A L  TRIPOLI 000004 
 
 
STATE PASS TO COMMERCE FOR DAVID ROTH 
USTR FOR DOUG BELL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/8/2015 
TAGS: ECON, PGOV, LY 
SUBJECT:  LIBYA ON LINE POISED FOR GROWTH 
 
REF: TRIPOLI 00036 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Gregory L. Berry, Chief Of Mission, USLO, Tripoli 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: Director and Founder of Libya On Line (LOL), 
Moawiya Maghur, describes the genesis and fast growth of Libya's 
most weighty Internet portal, and estimates that more than 20 
per cent of Libyans under the age of 35 access the Internet on a 
regular basis. LOL offers a range of products, from technical 
consulting and product design to online marketing and assistance 
with trade shows. LOL's sponsors include Coca Cola and British 
Airways, drawn by circulation figures that surpass those of 
local newspapers, and reach a more affluent audience.  End 
Summary. 
 
20% of Libyan Youth Are Connected 
--------------------------------------------- - 
2. (C) Econoff met 1/6 with LOL's director, Moawiya Maghur, son 
of former Libyan Foreign Minister Kamal Maghur, at the Tripoli 
offices of Libya On-Line. Maghur's premises serve as combined 
company headquarters and Internet cafi, which LOL uses as a 
marketing tool for its various services, including software 
development, networking, web hosting and domain name 
registration. Maghur says LOL, which employs 15 men and women 
(the majority of whom are young, female, and by Tripolitanian 
standards, extremely liberally-dressed), has registered 2000 
domain names in 2004, and is currently hosting 600 sites. LOL 
employs two individuals whose job it is to read and provide 
English language translations of Libyan press and television 
programs. With regard to the Libyan cyber market as a whole, 
Maghur estimated that 5% of the total population uses the 
Internet, but that the figure was considerably higher, perhaps 
20-25% among those under 35, and those living in Tripoli. "We 
even get a lot of older people, in their mid to late sixties, 
coming in here and chatting or video-conferencing with their 
children and grandchildren abroad," Maghur said. "Of course," he 
continued, "the Internet offers a way of livening up one's 
social life a bit. As was the case in Jordan in the early 90's, 
for example, many young people here use the Internet as a means 
to get to know each other without having to be seen in public." 
In addition to its Gargaresh location, LOL operates a cyber cafi 
at Tripoli International Airport.  Maghur says that business is 
good, particularly in the area of networking services. LOL has 
run into some problems marketing, the same issues that plague 
most high-profile businesses in Tripoli: "We bought a 3000 LD 
(about 2500 USD) sign for the front, and they came and took it 
down. They said the sign needed to be in Arabic." 
 
Libya On-Line: Libya's Principal Portal 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
3. (C) The showpiece of LOL is its eponymous Internet portal, 
Libya On Line, which Maghur's brother started on a shoestring 
budget in Ottawa, Canada, as a means of introducing people in 
North America to Libya and its culture. Libya On-Line contains 
an impressive set of information on Libyan tourist sites, 
government institutions, and private businesses, as well as a 
"Yellow Pages" directory of 2000 contacts. Maghur says he 
originally worked with Libyan Chamber of Commerce to develop the 
directory, but that the Chamber was so difficult to work with 
that he pulled out of the agreement after a year, at a financial 
loss: "We entered into an agreement with them to organize a 
trade expo; we printed CDs and brochures for them, and even 
managed part of the event-then during the show, one of their 
employees came by and started screaming, demanding to know why 
we were stealing their name." Maghur expects to expand the 
directory using a database of business names collected from a 
friend at the Tripoli land registry, which keeps the names of 
most new Libyan businesses. LOL is sponsored by Coca Cola, Puma, 
British Airways, Afriqiya, and Libtra Tours, a member of the 
Hosni Bey Group (refcable). LOL gets about 45,000 hits a month, 
compared with 33,000 a month three years ago. 
 
The Genesis of Libyan e-Commerce: 
------------------------------------------- 
4. (C) While others scoff at the idea that there are any 
"e-businesses" in Libya, Majhur says it is no joke, that LOL, 
through its Canada parent Visions, has helped create e-commerce 
capabilities for a number of local firms and artists, using 
Canada-based payment systems. Maghur gave as case in point a 
website for a singer (Maghur wouldn't give us the name, but a 
reliable source indicates it is likely Sheb Jilani, the "most 
self-important" of rising Libyan musical talent), who wanted to 
sell his CDs direct to the international market. "We sold about 
500 of these, and he came back to us a bit later and said he's 
worth a hundred times as many. We gave him back the CDs, and he 
tried to do it himself. Within a month, there were pirated 
copies of the CD all over Tripoli (one has to wonder if LOL had 
anything to do with this)." Maghur works with Libyan graphic 
artists to put their work on line, and is in the process of 
organizing a competition for Libyan singers, replete with 
internet voting and prizes. LOL also manages trade events, 
through affiliates. LOL will launch a sister site, "Tijara" 
(trade), in three months, focusing on providing useful 
information for foreign businesses, including Arabic 
translations of foreign press (the portal is bilingual, 
Arabic-English). 
 
5. (C) Comment: Moawiya Maghur is among perhaps a half-dozen 
private businessmen we have met whose projects and business 
sense have impressed us as "out of the ordinary". Some of the 
others include Buraq Air's CEO Mohammed Bubeida, Mohammed 
Gherwash, head of Winzrik Tours, and Hosni Bey, of the Hosni Bey 
Group (refcable). All of these individuals are foreign-educated. 
The personalities appear to be such that they would succeed in 
even a significantly more competitive market. End Comment. 
 
--Cairo Please Post to Site-- 
 
BERRY