Back in the year 2000, facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg was a 16-year-old high school student who captained the fencing team.
Birds were the only species that tweeted. And we were all still breathing a sigh of relief that the much-hyped 'Millenium Bug' - which, we were told, would see aircraft fall from the skies due to the inability of their systems to count past '99' - turned out to be a non-event.
But 2000 was also the year that Dubai took its first step onto the information superhighway - opening the doors to Dubai Internet City (DIC), the freezone dedicated to an exciting digital future.
Malek Al Malek was there more or less from the beginning. Today he is the managing director of Dubai Internet City, and Dubai Outsource Zone too.
The 'city' is home to 1,400 firms - from what Al Malek refers to as 'one-man shows' to Microsoft, Google and - as of last year - facebook.
But if scores of global names now call the district adjacent to Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road home, Al Malek doesn't have to cast his mind back too far to remember when he was there in a more junior role - when the region's biggest tech development was crafted "out of the sand".
Selling Dubai's vision to tech firms was more difficult back then than it is today, he says.
"We would say 'we will build an ecosystem, we have IT firms, we will have infrastructure'," he remembers. "Today we actually have a history that we can tell people about - and a track record of success stories."
But in 2013, when people can tweet, poke, 'like', and share with people across the globe in a millisecond, the physical miles falling away at a stroke, we have to ask, do tech companies really need to be sat cheek-by-jowl in a zone like DIC?
"I think the whole proposition that we offer is more than just a group of companies sitting next to each other," Al Malek says.
Over the years the management of the tech hub have learned the licensing, infrastructure and manpower needs of various IT enterprises, he says - and made it their business to offer these incentives.
"It is a bundle of things that actually make companies attracted to this community," Al Malek explains.
And the kind of firms that are being attracted are changing with the times - around 25 per cent of new entrants last year were social media-type enterprises. The number of companies registered in DIC itself is growing at around
15 per cent a year.
But while every new enterprise with a Bluetooth headset and a Twitter account will eagerly hail itself as the 'Amazon.com of the Middle East', what about that other cliché? How far off are we from 'a Middle East Zuckerberg'.
Al Malek admits a regional tech start-up is yet to have a "global impact" but says great strides have already been taken in the last decade.
"Back in 2000 we were only a consumer market where people bought mobiles, computers and gadgets," he says. "But today we have - from our region - application developers, we have e-commerce and online portals. At the time we wouldn't have dreamed that someone from this region would be creating technology companies."
The LTE - or '4G' - networks being constructed across the UAE are up to a "global standard", he says. Yes, he agrees, the long-running saga of whether something as basic as Skype can be offered in the UAE, is a reminder that "we are still behind" when it comes to certain services. But that's a gap that can be closed, Al Malek says.
And anyway, thanks in part to the pull of Dubai Internet City, in tech circles today the UAE is much more than a place to buy a camera.
Al Malek says: "I think we are contributing to the future of technology today. And developing things that serve us and the rest of the world."
'LIVE AND LEARN'
Name: MALEK AL MALEK
Firm: DUBAI INTERNET CITY
Position: MANAGING DIRECTOR
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
My first job? My first job was in Dubai Internet City, 12 years ago. I was responsible for account management and moved through the levels to where I am today.
WHO HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR CAREER?
I think [UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai] HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the best when it comes to realising dreams. I've learned so much - I've seen how to take a dream into reality.
What has been the best day of your career?
I don't normally categorise them that way. Life is good.
LOOKING BACK, WOULD YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?
I would do whatever I did and choose the same things. Moving faster would be ideal for everyone, but I think if I had the choice again I would do the same thing.
HOW DO YOU RELAX?
I do a lot of sporting activities like football and jogging.
What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?
I think it is a very rewarding industry. We have big opportunities for this region, which is yet to really grow. There are segments like e-commerce and social media that offer a lot of promising business opportunities. It's a good time.
© 7Days 2013
