On Friday, the Associated Press reported that ICANN, the California-based nonprofit body which oversees management and assignment of internet domains, approved Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as the first non-Latin domain names. While not readily apparent to the Western eye, make no mistake, this is big news for the Middle East and represents serious opportunity particularly in the e-commerce and relevant hardware spaces. Overall, the ICANN approval has profound implications for the region given the comparatively fewer number of people connected to the internet. See clip of AP report below.