Viral Video: A Youtube Is Born For The Arab World

Where can you find a Saudi breakdancer, a Lebanese temptress and a narcoleptic sheik? At Ikbis ("click" in Arabic), a new Web site that lets Arabs join the file-sharing craze. Internet use in the Middle East has increased fourfold in the past six years, with more than 20 million logging on each day. The first Arabic-language service of its kind, Ikbis.com has already struck a chord--more than 1,000 files went up within a week of its November launch, and the site now tops 30,000 page views a day.

Like YouTube, Ikbis attracts humorous clips. But politics are never far behind in the Mideast; users have shared George W. Bush parodies and home movies of the recent wars in Lebanon and Gaza. The Saddam Hussein execution video was up briefly, before administrators took it offline for being too disturbing. ("We all agreed that in a region full of atrocities, that reality needs to be conveyed somewhere, but not on Ikbis," site co-creator George Akra wrote in an e-mail.)

Ibkis's creators say they hope to provide a public forum for a region where most governments keep a tight lid on public expression. "Every camera-phone-carrying citizen can be a contributor," says Ahmad Humeid, an Amman-based graphic designer and a site founder. "I think we're all, globally, just starting to understand the power of these digital tools."

© 2007