MBC, the largest media broadcaster in the Middle East, has appointed Leftfield to create, deliver and manage iMatter, a social networking site for supporting the needs and voices of young women across the region.

MBC4 is the Arab world’s first ever channel exclusively for women. Broadcasting the latest in top-rated Western entertainment, like Oprah, Dr Phil and Friends, it is supported by iMatter – an online club that links up with more than 13,000 Arab women one-to-one. iMatter provides a unique opportunity, both online and in physical events/activities for ‘new’ Arabic women to use to express how they feel about issues and what they want to do about issues.

MBC 4 wants to capitalize on the sense of identity that women feel for IMatter and the momentum created.

Social Networking is becoming a key ingredient of eCommerce
19-Oct-07 10:33

EBay is going to launch a social network to support it’s online auction platform. The network will allow eBay members to join a number of retail neighbourhoods focused on areas such fashion, music and film.

The only question is ’Why has it taken them so long?’. It’s clear that for social marketplaces to be effective they need a high level of peer review. The more information available to the community members the better and allowing members to build up their consumer and supplier profiles will allow the online ’neighbourhood’ effect you get from local recommendations for shops and services.

The reality though is that you need a lot of element in place to run a successful social marketplace and these take a while to get in place.

There is a second story on NetImperative today comments on a ComScore report which highlights that Brits are the biggest social networks in Europe, which just goes to highlight further how essential social networking is going to be for corporate sites in general, and community sites in particular.