The startups that won the Maroc Web Awards
For the past seven years, Moroccans have elected their favorite web players during the Maroc Web Awards. The award ceremony is a highly anticipated event, and this year, as usual, the Théâtre Mohammed V in Rabat hosted a full house. What matters, thought, is not so much the ceremony as the election itself as it draws attention to the web ecosystem and acknowledges people therein who deserve recognition.
It’s up to web users to nominate and vote for candidates. This year, the Maroc Web Awards received almost 60,000 votes. Then, it’s up to a jury, this year comprising entrepreneur and blogger Anas el Filali, New Work Lab’s founder Fatim-Zahra Biaz, artist Mehdi Annassi, photographer Imane Tirich, Greendizer’s cofounder Amine Azariz (now behind the payment getaway AmanPay), GeekFtour’s organizer Youcef Es-skouri and comic Yassine Jarram, to select a winner among the top five most voted players in each category.
Two startups were rewarded this year. In the non e-commerce category, it was Kezakoo, a video e-learning platform for students of all ages. Its competition was one startup backed by giant European classified ads platform Bikhir (which recently announced that it would team up with its main competitor Avito.ma), as well as a communication agency, Webeuz, and a website hosting and creation service MarocWebs.
On the e-commerce side, the finalists included Rocket Internet-backed meal delivery service Hellofood Maroc, and kaymu.ma, another Rocket Internet product aiming to become the Amazon of Morocco, and local offline success story gone online Shoppeos.ma. But it’s the anti-lean startup Mescadeaux.ma who won the prize.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
- Web personality of the year: Abdellah Abujad
- Blogger of the year: Naciri Yasmine
- Twitter of the year: Tindars
- Creative of the year: Mustapha Swinga
- Podcast of the year: Abdellah Abujad
- Instagram of the year: igmirien
- Online article of the year: الهاتف الذكي و الإنسان الغبي
- Webzine of the year: المجتمع العلمي المغربي
- Picture of the year: Lueurs et espoirs
- Application of the year: الوظيفة – مروك
- Start-up of the year: Kezakoo
- Facebook page of the year: هل تعلم ؟
- e-commerce Platform of the year: Mescadeaux.ma
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