Five minutes with.. Virtual Dusk executive director Tony N. Al Saiegh

What was the inspiration behind Souqplace.com and how did you start the company?

The amount of genuine good products that are being sold via social media by small businesses and home sellers is huge. Selling through social media would dramatically reduce the value of products, besides social media is more of an exposure platform than a selling one, so we thought of giving them a space to facilitate their exposure and selling process. By this way, we give genuine talented people a chance to sell their products right and eliminate the multiple social media selling frauds. Once this idea started making sense, we got right into registrations, branding and the development of the website.

What differentiates the site from other online sales platforms?

The main difference is allowing sellers and buyers to communicate, plus all shops can openly advertise their brand, logo, website, etc. on our platform.

How many users do you have?

We have over 250 shops online at the moment

Do you think e-commerce has the potential to overtake traditional retail sales in a region with a love for malls?

I believe e-commerce is almost there, in no time it will actually take over retail. A lot of people still prefer to go, see and touch, before they buy the product, but then even they go back home to order online. For many, malls will be the display platform, online will be the ordering platform and for the rest it’s just e-commerce.

With big names likes Noon.com entering the market is there a risk smaller players get squeezed out?

We don’t see ourselves competing with Noon.com, Souq.com and the others, we have our target, we have our focus. Souq.com is large scale e-commerce which does not particularly cater to sellers and Noon.com is focused on fashion. The existence of these big players is actually good for us as they give confidence to the users to be more comfortable with e-commerce and online shopping especially in the Middle East where the use of credit card online is still ‘scary’.

What are your expansion plans and are you seeking additional funding?

We hope to be expanding into regional big markets like Saudi, Kuwait and of course the rest of GCC countries. And yes, we would consider funding from genuine investors who share our vision and will help us expand faster and more effectively.

Are you hiring?

We just finished a great round of hiring, from customer care to technical support to developers

What is your leadership style?

Teamwork and open door, no bosses, just a team helping a decision maker make his decisions

In my spare time I like to..

Photography, I have reached professionalism in photography at this point of time. I consider it as a form of meditation. After the great deal of pressure and challenges that comes with a startup it really helps me relax. My work can be viewed on www.tonyns.com