Charles Schwab delayed by 20 mins. The quality of traditional advertising has always been considered as a strength of creative agencies in the region. However, with the advent of the Internet, the slow adoption of this new and unproven media has left the region lagging behind the rest of the world in the quality of web art and the graphical element required in the production of websites. The Middle East's Internet market is currently nudging two million users. While this number may seem significant, it represents less than one per cent of the total worldwide users of the Internet.
Clients are still slow on the uptake in accepting the Internet as a new medium for communication.
A large majority of multinationals, whose international sites are award-winners and benchmarks for excellence, appear reluctant to even enter this market. Companies who have invested millions in their worldwide presence, have largely ignored the Middle East market or have had their local agents create a shadow of the work they present online on their international sites. Some multinationals, like BMW, have developed regional sites that are on a par with their global counterparts due to stringent corporate visual standards, but BMW is an exception. Clients are still unwilling to pay for world-class design work on the Internet. Apart from multinationals, regional clients also share the blame for not promoting the development of top-notch websites.