**First **** LinkedIn **MENA office opens in UAE Exciting news for the Middle Eastern business world this week as LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 175 million members worldwide, announced the opening of its first office in the Middle East and North Africa. Located in Dubai’s Internet City, the office will serve as regional headquarters to over five million members in the Middle East and North Africa, one million of which are based in the UAE, where a team of approximately half a dozen will support the growing membership and client base.

The new MySpace Having already brought ‘sexy back’, Justin Timberlake is at it again this time bringing back the old and largely forgotten MySpace. With new and improved appeal, the teaser video released this week offered us an insight into what the ‘new MySpace’ will look, feel and function like, and to our pleasant surprise….it looks brilliant! Debuting a left-to-right timeline frame (evidently with tablets in mind), emphasizing visual imagery and media player capabilities for playlist compilation, it seems that MySpace is going back to its roots utilizing music as the main attraction point.

59% of Emirati Twitter users are women This may sound like a surprising statistics, but according to a recent independent study by Emirati journalist, Ahmad Al Mansour, 59% of Emirati Twitter users are female in comparison to 41% of male Emirati users. The study was conducted to gain deeper insight into the factors contributing to the burst of Twitter growth in the region, specifically the UAE. Other interesting findings show that Emirati’s mainly use Twitter as a social networking platform to meet and connect with others, and have largely only taken to Twitter within the last couple of years.

The cost of buying followers With the practice of purchasing Twitter followers growing in controversy, particularly around certain presidential campaigns currently taking place, senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Abdullah has declared the act as ‘dishonest and mendacious’. According to the Guardian this condemnation followed a Saudi Marketing company’s admission that it had sold “bundles” of Twitter followers, Facebook fans and YouTube “likes” to “sportsmen, businessmen, poets and clerics”. Deemed a fatwa (a religious opinion considering something unacceptable or immoral), Sheikh Abdulla expressed that the buying of followers is not only shameful, but also sad, sinful and dishonest.

Remembering Neil Armstrong The world was hit with the sad news of Neil Armstrong’s passing this week. News that the first man on the moon had died shocked and saddened many, with news of his death soon becoming a worldwide trending topic. Words such as “hero” and “great American” were frequently used in the heartfelt messages Tweeted by the likes of Richard Branson, Piers Morgan and retired astronaut, Mark Kelly.

A dirty QWERTY, regional social TV, Facebook postcards and top-Tweeting cities? It must be time for our weekly wrap-up! Social TV UAE based companies Arabi on TV and SkyGrid have collaborated to develop Touch TV – the first free application to watch TV shows on Facebook, according to a report in Gulf News. The app, which works on all major operating systems, is designed to tap into the way people in the region access social networking sites for entertainment.

As Ramadan commenced, an Arabian Business headline caught my eye: Over 100 hospitalized in Qatar after overeating. This appears to be the effects of a Ramadan celebration gone awry, but as an expat, recently relocated to the UAE, I can sympathize. I’ve been lucky enough to eat the buffets at brunches and Iftars, and while I’ve never had to resort to hospitalization, I can see the importance of self-regulation and self-control.

Is Facebook dying? In its first report as a public company last week, Facebook announced that it has lost $157m from April to June. Shares have now fallen to a new low of $23.71 compared to the initial price of $38 when Facebook first became listed on the Nasdaq in May. On top of this, it has been estimated that Facebook has over 83 million illegitimate accounts, adding to the growing concern about the effectiveness of Facebook as a marketing and advertising platform.

The Online Project (TOP) family extends its wishes to all Arabian Bytes on the advent of the Holy month of Ramadan. The Online Project released its second industry report in 2012, which is under the theme of exploring user behavior trends during Ramadan. Our rationale was that the nature of the Holy month, affects the personal and professional schedules of people in the Arab and Muslim worlds dramatically. It all started with Ramadan 2011, when our analysis team, which is tasked with keeping tabs on all activity related to the pages of our clients, noticed an interesting change in user behavior on Twitter.

As the world tunes in to the Olympic Games, this Friday 27th July, the hopes of over 200 countries are pinned on their nation’s preeminent sporting icons. While the Games have evolved over the past century, the Olympic spirit remains the same: to bring people together in peace and friendly competition. The 2012 Olympic Games marks an unparalleled sense of history with the inclusion of female athletes from every participating nation, as well as the first Olympics to involve female athletes in every sport.