The Media Supermarket

Nothing!
Was my first reaction. Especially when I first heard about Vital Edition a newly-opened online book store targeted to Amman locals.
What about Amazon? And How will they compete with Adab wa Fan, the joint venture between Maktoob, “the biggest Arab online community” and Aramex, the top Arab express courier?
After some investigation and a meeting with the owners, I realized that they can not only compete, but they have some real advantage over their main “competitors”.
When I order a book from Amazon it takes no less than two weeks to arrive to my part of the world. I have no idea how long it takes with Adab wa Fan. With Vital Edition, they deliver the books within 48 hours, which is really a big difference in convenience, and in the reduced cost. (their delivery is free)
I have no official statistics but people having credit cards in Amman are very little in number, and even these are still skeptical about making online transactions with credit cards. With VE you pay cash, and only after receiving your book.
Moreover, there is this personal element in their service where you can call a local mobile number and talk to a person, not just a machine.
Parallel to their online efforts, VE is creating an offline presence in cafes  in Amman, by renting display stands in outlets. This helps increase awareness of their brand, and gives a new dimension to customers experience in the outlet.
Maybe this is another cycle repeating itself where the local store has some advantage over Big Corps.
What still needs to be achieved is, well, the P word. Profitability doesn’t seem to be coming in the near future. I think this would be only possible through adding more local products and categories in the same way, and reducing over-heads by only providing delivery from affiliated suppliers. Another challenge is to improve their variety and provide choice for the customer. Currently, they have a limited range restricted to top best sellers in each category.
Nawwaf Uteibi and Mohammed Kilani, the founders, are motivated not just to make a good business, but to make a difference in the reading habits in their town.
Local publishing is also being valued more and more, especially with giant media companies covering the globe for the major event.
Similarly, local publishing is gaining more value for the fact that huge world events are covered and scanned by big companies who cannot scan every detail in every town, and because of cultural and language barriers.
Spring Spotters is a network of “spotters” who contribute by sharing new, and interesting business ideas and models. They openly encourage locals, who have cultural and geographical reach to share any developments in their locations. They also give prizes for popular articles.
Another project, is Home Turf Media’s new blog network which is a hybrid of both. It is “glocal”. The reach is global and the network is interlinked. At the same time the content of each blog is highly local. This is quite different from most blog networks, in that they are based on location and not subject. So far they have a small network of five blogs, and still in the beginning.
Seems we have different options; you can have a global business, and you can have a purely local one… You can also choose to go glocal.