News

Information kiosks becoming common sight in Gulf region

September 18, 2003

EGYPT -- Kiosks are appearing on street corners in the Gulf, "talking" with users in their native languages, and dispensing everything from discounts for car washes to phone cards and parking ticket. Soon they will also offer tickets for concerts, movies or long-awaited sporting events.

According to an article in the Gulf News,Mohamed Al Abd, chief executive officer of International Prepaid Solutions (IPS), said the concept behind the kiosks is to push entertainment to where the people go. "It's fun in a box that also happens to dispense some things people need," he said in the article.

Currently, 20 machines dispense pre-paid phone and parking meter cards. But IPS will bring in 30 more machines soon, based on the public's reaction to the kiosks.

Besides cards (computer printouts on thermal paper), the interactive kiosks offer prizes with each purchase. These can be used to redeem discounts at outlets including Emarat stations, A&W and Virgin Megastores, the article said.

To gain consumer acceptance, the machines also randomly dispense winning cards that can be exchanged for a range of prizes including television sets, DVD and CD players.

Al Abd said the machines, which use a touchscreen display, are custom-made for the UAE but are assembled in Canada, Germany or Egypt. That could soon change as the company may decide to assemble the kiosks in the UAE for the Gulf and neighboring countries.

Al Abd said, "We're thinking of doing the local manufacturing, servicing and maintenance of these machines for other Gulf countries, as the labor here is quite competitive compared to most Europeans countries."

The interactive information kiosks are linked to a central computer server over a high-speed connection that updates messages, ads and videos.

"The same kiosks will sell football tickets in Egypt while the company is discussing with FIFA to sell tickets for the Youth World Championships in the UAE in November," said Al Abd.

"We can also use the machines to sell concert and cinema tickets or pay bills. These are the things we want to do eventually. It's not a question of availability of infrastructure. We're working out agreements with different parties."

People can interact with the kiosks in four languages: Arabic, Hindi, Tagalog and English. Said Al Abd, "We're thinking of adding Urdu and Russian soon. But we don't want to complicate it too much. We've been in the market for two and a half months, we see a very good growth."

IPS is a joint venture between the Al Ashram family of the UAE, El Abd from Egypt, and Al Barry, an Egyptian American.