Algeria poses a number of
serious problems to marketers looking to expand their E-commerce efforts into
the country. One of the most serious barriers is the stipulation in
Algerian law that makes it illegal for citizens to purchase
goods from outside the country – although businesses may purchase foreign items
for internal use. Marketers will have to establish a base within the country to
be able to see business from Algerian citizens. The scarcity of international
and private-use credit cards in Algeria also hampers the success of online
marketers. More crucial, however, is the extremely low Internet penetration – only 19.7%, or
just over 40,000, citizens are connected to the Web. This makes Algeria one of
the countries with the lowest Internet penetration rates in 2016. A lack of online
payment gateways also makes Algerians reluctant to trust
E-commerce websites. Many top platforms operate on a CoD (cash on delivery)
system, which can be unreliable and result in enormous return rates.
These issues aside, however, Algeria is a largely untapped market that may show
great promise once more of the population is connected to the Internet and
more websites have provided reliable methods of payment. The managing director
of Kaymu, one of the top E-commerce platforms in Algeria, claims that there has
been a lot of growth in the sector throughout 2016.
Following are the most visited Algerian
and MENA-focused ecommerce websites:
·
Ouedkniss.com
·
Aliexpress.net
·
Kaymu.com
·
Batolis.com
·
Jumia.com.ng
Search Engine Marketing in Algeria
Statsmonkey’s 2014 usage
statistics for search engine sites in Algeria indicate that
while Google does hold the large majority of the search engine market share,
other sites do earn a significant amount of traffic. Ask Jeeves and Yahoo have
a significant user base in Algeria, and might be worth the targeting effort to
get a different audience and less competitive market once you have tested
digital marketing on Google in Algeria.
Here we will compare
the relative competition for Search Engine Optimization in Algeria and the
United States using Moz.com’s Open Site
Explorer. We will compare SEO metrics by searching for generic
keywords on each country’s specific Google page and then looking at the
relative trust and number of equity-passing links on each top site (specific to
the certain page featured in the top results). We will use the top organic link
on each page, ignoring pay-per-click advertisements.
Books in USA vs. Books
in Algeria
The SEO metrics of these
top pages in the United States and Algeria are actually very similar. They
hold close levels of rank and trust, and the Algerian site contains more
external equity-passing links. Although the U.S. page has more links and thus
more page authority, the closeness in numbers to the Algerian website suggests
a similar level of competition to rank high on both countries’ Google sites.
Cars in USA vs. Cars
in Algeria
The difference in SEO
metrics between the U.S. and Algeria is more stark in the search for cars, but
still demonstrates a close level of relative competition. The two pages
received similar levels of rank and trust. The U.S. site held a far greater
number of equity-passing links than the Algerian site. However, it is important
to note that the U.S. search led to the homepage of cars.com, whereas the
Algerian search led to a specific subdomain. This helps to explain the great
difference in number of links between the two results. It also may indicate a
higher level of SEO competition in Algeria because a smaller sub-page achieved
close to the same levels of SEO needed for the homepage of a large company in
the U.S. to reach the top Google ranking.
In this section, we
will examine the relative competition for pay-per-click advertising between the
United States and Algeria. We will show that there is a lot of room and
opportunity in the Algerian market for marketers to engage in successful PPC
advertising.
Analyzing the PPC
Differences between the U.S. and Algeria
We will now look at
the opportunity for success in using pay-per-click advertising in Algeria by
comparing the number, quality, and relevance of PPC ads that result from
searches in Algeria and the U.S. We will use basic keywords that express intent
to buy in hopes of generating two different searches that would result in a
number of PPC ads. We will search in English on Google.com and in Arabic on
Google.dz.
Our first search will
be for “cheap flights to London”, in English for the U.S. and in Arabic
for Algeria:
This search at first
appears to show close levels of competition between the U.S. and Algeria – the
Algerian search results in 3 relevant paid ads compared to the 4 from the U.S.
site. However, it is important to remember that Google offers only 4 spots for
top-page advertising. The filled slots for the U.S. page indicate that there
are likely many other ads competing and bidding for those prime spots. In
addition, the ads for the Algerian site are not as relevant to the search as
those on the U.S. page. They highlight flights from cities outside of Algeria
such as Beirut and Jeddah, indicating a lack of Algeria-specific paid
advertising.
Our next search will
be for “apartments for rent” in the U.S. and Algeria:
This search emphasizes
the lower level of competition in Algeria compared to the United States. Though
the top four results for the Algerian page are all relevant to the search and
location-specific, none of them are a result of PPC advertising. These searches
demonstrate a real lack of pay per click advertising in Algeria. Marketers can
take advantage of this opportunity by engaging in very cheap bidding on Google
Adwords to obtain top placement ads in Algeria.
Geo-Targeting Opportunities in Algeria
The vast majority (almost 71% as
of 2015) of Algeria’s population is urbanized, living in cities in the northern
part of the country close to the Mediterranean Sea. This makes Algeria an
excellent location for geo-targeting certain cities with greater numbers of
people, different specializations, and better infrastructure to be able to
engage in online marketing in Algeria. Below, we have brief descriptions of the
top 5 most populated cities in Algeria.
Algiers
Algiers is the capital
and largest city of Algeria, with a population of nearly 2 million.
For comparison, it is a little less populated than the city of Houston.
It is the economic center of
Algeria, and houses the country’s foreign embassies.
Boumerdas
Boumerdas is the
second-largest city in Algeria, with a population of almost 800,000.
It is a coastal center that
engages in mostly agricultural trade.
Oran
With a population of almost 650,000,
Oran is the second largest
port city in Algeria after the capital Algiers – located at the
closest point in the country to Spain. Oran is filled with government offices
and manufacturing plants – mainly exporting food items such as wines and
cereals.
Tébessa
Tébessa, with a
population of about 640,000,
is considered a gateway to the
south. It is situated in northeastern Algeria, and it is known for
trade in sheep, grass, grain, and carpets.
Constantine
Constantine is a
well-known fortress city in Algeria with a population of 450,000.
Its main trade is
in leather and woolen goods, as well as various agricultural products.
Social Media in Algeria
Although Algeria’s Internet penetration statistics
are shockingly low, those citizens that do have access to and regularly use the
Internet seem to be highly engaged with social media. As of June 2016, the
IWS (Internet World Stats) reported that the number of users active on Facebook
was roughly equal to the number of citizens accessing the Internet. These
numbers demonstrate an increased use of the Internet from 2015, when the Arab
Social Media Report suggested that around 92% of Algerian Internet users were
active on Facebook. It also indicated that a large majority of Algerian
Facebook users accessed the site on nearly a daily basis. However, it also
indicated that penetration by other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram
were extremely low – Twitter was used by around 23% of Internet users and
Instagram hovered at 3%. These statistics suggest that marketers might do very
well to concentrate on advertising through Facebook, which a large number of young
and Internet-savvy Algerians are constantly checking. However, marketers should
keep in mind the power of the government over the Internet in Algeria, both in
its censorship and in its ability to impose blackouts on the Net. In 2011, the
Algerian government shut down the
Internet and deleted a number of Facebook accounts in response
to pro-democracy protests – citing the ability of Facebook to act as an
organizing tool as justification to block it throughout the country. The
government has also been known to block social
media networks during exam times in an effort to suppress
cheating efforts, such as in June of 2016. Marketers should concentrate their
social media advertising on Facebook with the knowledge that it is not
unprecedented for access to the site to be severely restricted.
Most “Liked” Facebook
Pages in Algeria
Following are the most popular Facebook
pages in Algeria in 2016:
احلام مستغانمى
خديخة بن قنة
Journal el Bilad
Santé+ Magazine
Khaled
Lotfi DK
Maracana Foot
Zinou Kds
Warda وردة الخزائرية
Hafid Derradji- حفيظ
دراجي
This list includes a
number of Arabic and French journals and magazines, ranging from topics of the
home to sports. It also contains a number of performers such as Khaled, Lofti
DK, and Warda. Topping the list is famous Arabic-language author Ahlam Mosteghanemi.
This list indicates the interest of Algerians in news and music, as well as
literature.
State of Mobile Marketing in Algeria
According to the “The Mobile
Economy Arab States 2015” report conducted by GMSA
Intelligence, as well as statistics by Evolita,
the smartphone penetration in Algeria that would enable citizens to engage in
mobile marketing is half the global average and well below the average of other
Arab states at only 22%. There are currently no live LTE networks in Algeria,
although plans to implement one network are underway. However, it is not only
the low number of Algerians with phones able to access apps and the Internet
that prevents growth in mobile marketing in Algeria. As of 2014, only about
half of the Algerian population held a bank account. The popularity of Cash on
Demand systems solves this problem, but results in huge rates of returns for
sellers. Marketing on apps or optimizing a website for mobile may not be worth
the investment due to the low numbers of Algerians able to effectively use
smartphones to engage in mobile shopping and the high return rates for those
who are able.
Algeria Internet Country Codes
Algeria offers one top-level domain in Latin
characters. Domains are administered by the Network Internet Center, and
have very few restrictions. The only restriction to apply for a domain name is
that the organization applying must have a presence in Algeria itself. A domain
name costs about 1000 Algerian dinars, or 14 U.S. dollars, a year.
Top-Level Domains
.dz
Second-Level Domains
·
.asso.dz
·
.art.dz
·
.com.dz
·
.edu.dz
·
.org.dz
·
.gov.dz
·
.net.dz
·
.pol.dz
Popular Websites in Algeria
Following are the top 10 most visited
websites in Algeria for December 2016:
·
Youtube.com
·
Google.dz
·
Google.com
·
Ouedkniss.com
·
Facebook.com
·
Yahoo.com
·
Google.fr
·
Blogspot.com
·
Wikipedia.org
·
Onclickads.net
This list is for the
most part typical of any country’s top 10 list, including international
favorites such as Google, YouTube, and Yahoo. However, the inclusion of
Google.fr in the top 10 list suggests a heavy influence of France and French
language into Algeria. Another very interesting inclusion is ouedkniss.com,
which is a small Algeria-specific E-commerce site. The high ranking of
ouedkniss.com is an optimistic sign for marketers, pointing to the eagerness of
Algerians to search and buy online.
Popular Region-Specific Websites in Algeria
Following are the top
10 most visited region-specific websites. This list includes websites that are
based in or directed towards Algeria and MENA.
·
Google.dz
·
Ouedkniss.com
·
Ency-education.com
·
Koora.com
·
Djelfa.info
·
Echoroukonline.net
·
Elkhabar.com
·
Ennaharonline.com
·
Mawdoo3.com
·
Elbilad.net
The majority of the
sites on this list are news sites, either based in Algeria or focused toward
North Africa and the Middle East. Two outliers are Ouedkneiss.com, an
E-commerce website based in Algeria, and Ency-education.com – a site used to
provide education materials to Algerian schools and students. The prevalence of
news and education websites suggests an intelligent and curious population. The
presence of an E-commerce website on the top 10 list suggests a willingness to
buy and interact online.
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