According to Stefan Toubia, Founder and CEO of Raayi, the region’s first cross-industry crowdsourcing review platform, the UAE is leading the MENA region in the crowdsourcing industry where public participation in issues of national importance, including health and education, is highly encouraged.
“Crowdsourcing, or the practice of enlisting the recommendations or contributions of a large group of people for specific tasks, is a widely accepted norm in today’s ultra-connected digital age. Individuals, private businesses and even government entities around the world have been employing this tactic for years to improve everyday tasks, enhance innovation and enrich decisions. There are many ways to crowdsource information. Customer reviews, for instance, are a form of crowdsourcing because suggestions and ideas are proposed by many participants in hopes of helping the individual make better decisions. Reviews are also the best way for businesses to gain an in-depth understanding of their target market’s needs and wants,” Toubia said.
Toubia cited how his app Raayi, which means ‘my opinion’ in Arabic, acts as a review crowdsourcing platform in the UAE. One of the three main features of Raayi is its forum for ratings and reviews of businesses, which allows customers to share their feedback on local businesses from over 17 different industries. Through the use of reviews, customers can save time and effort by accessing an easy way to find the business that best suits their needs.
“The ratings and reviews contributed by Raayi app users are designed to benefit both prospective customers and businesses through sharing of experiences. These collected reviews from a crowd of customers have the power to influence choices and outcomes as well as create significant behavioral and societal change. Crowdsourcing customer reviews through a platform like Raayi ultimately results in improved economic production, innovation and growth, all of which are key to fast-tracking the development of a digital economy,” he highlighted.
Toubia, along with his other co-founders, established Raayi to connect businesses across industries to communities and consumers via its three key components. Apart from its business rating and review feature, the Raayi app also has a business directory and a special curations feature.
The business directory offers insights into varied sectors operating in the UAE whilst the curation feature allows Raayi app users to share information through lists.
The app also brings benefits to companies by offering business owners an opportunity to interact with customers about their experiences and answer their questions. Moreover, it provides companies with a defined set of analytics, which can be used to gain insights into consumer preferences.
“Depending on the diversity of the information provided, crowdsourcing becomes a tool for growth and advancement in today’s modern era. It empowers individuals while also producing marketing intelligence to increase a business’s competitiveness. Crowdsourcing not only drives value, but it also invites wider collaboration to address the information transparency gap,” Toubia concluded.