News

SMBs Can Now Join TikTok’s First Digital Marketing Academy In MENA

The digital marketing academy is the first virtual education platform of its kind in the MENA region, and it was created from the ground up to address the needs of SMBs.

Published

5 years ago

June 9, 2021

Joanna Melki

smbs can now join tiktok's first digital marketing academy in mena

In their never-ending race to compete with large enterprises, SMBs must take advantage of every tool that can give them even the slightest competitive advantage, and marketing their products and services on social media networks such as TikTok is a great example.

The only problem is that small and medium-sized businesses rarely have the resources to hire in-house marketing experts who know how to navigate popular social media networks. Now, TikTok’s business arm is offering all SMBs in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) region a cost-effective alternative in the form of its new digital marketing academy.

The digital marketing academy is the first virtual education platform of its kind in the MENA region, and it was created from the ground up to address the needs of SMBs. Those who decide to join it will complete a five-week training program consisting of five distinct courses that cover everything how TikTok works to advertising best practices.

“From introducing participants to the TikTok app to demonstrating how they can sign up to the Self-Serve ads, to best practice on optimizing their content and performance, to finally creating their first campaign, this module will provide participants with a shortcut to unlocking the potential of TikTok for their business,” explains Shant Oknayan, TikTok’s general manager of global business solutions MENA.

Also Read: How To Use TikTok Auto Captions To Make Your Videos More Accessible

After completing the entire course, participants will receive an SMB TikTok Pro digital badge. Although of little value to small businesses that have no intention of showing off their newly acquired skills to others, the digital badge is a boon to agencies, which may use it to promote their services.

You can learn more about TikTok’s first digital marketing academy in the MENA region on its official website.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.