Some stories from today’s newspapers across the Gulf.

The National: DNA database set to start in a year. The UAE’s look to be well on its way to becoming the first country in the world to collect DNA from every single person living in the country.

Gulf News: Etisalat mobile services restored after disruptions. After three days of disruptions Etisalat customers have a service again. The firm says this was not connected to previous disruptions that affected only its BlackBerry users. Well, what are left of them after the spyware scandal a few months back.

The Khaleej Times: Camels to Strut at Beauty Show. Maybe it was a slow news day…

Saudi Gazette: ‘Nosy parker’ gets month behind bars. Man gets a month in jail and a SR5,00 fine for reporting to police a man he thought was involved in the disappearance of two Qatari children in Mecca.

The Peninsula: Museum of Islamic Art bags architecture award. The museum has won the Overall Project of the Year award at the second Middle East Architecture Awards. See photos of this year’s award winners HERE

The Kuwait Times: Shops of ‘plus size’clothes increase. This rather unscientific report claims that the number of obese Kuwaitis has risen… based on the increasing number of plus size clothes shops.

A slogan by Mashreq has raised eyebrows around the Gulf this summer amid a slew of international financial scandals.

“We do banking, you do life,” is the strapline used by the UAE’s third biggest bank by revenue in a series of radio and print advertisements.

Following a number of high profile, global corporate scandals over the last year, some people have taken the word “life” in that sentence to mean something very different from what the copywriters had in mind.

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language lists one of the meanings of the word as “a prison sentence covering the remaining portion of the offender’s animate existence”.

“I nearly dropped my mobile phone and coffee when I heard the Mashreq slogan,” a British expat wrote on the popular website Qatar Living.

“Am not sure, as a customer, if I’d ever want to do life, in prison! Whoever did the creative, probably should get life,” blogger UAEian wrote.

Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) is seeking more than $1bn from Mashreq in a counterclaim to the bank’s $150m lawsuit in New York against the troubled Saudi conglomerate.

AHAB has accused Mashreq of aiding and abetting fraud, conversion and breach of fiduciary duty, as well as unjust enrichment and bad faith.

Dubai-based advertising agency Team Y&R was responsible for creating Mashreq’s “you do life” slogan.

“In a fast-paced world, Mashreq ensures its customers enjoy what they cherish most. Life. Since different people interpret convenience differently, Mashreq’s range of products and services ensures that everyone’s life is made easier,” a spokesperson said.

“This research has translated in to a consumer promise and our tagline of - ‘we do banking, you do life,’ meaning we focus on looking after your financial well being so that you can focus on enjoying life.”

Free, The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson
Random House Business Books
$14.55 (hardcover) at amazon.com

What happens when advances in technology allow many things to be produced for more or less nothing? And what happens when those things are made available to us for free?

This is the question posed by the latest book on global business trends by Chris Anderson, editor of US new economy magazine Wired, and author of The Long Tail, which considered the impact of unlimited digital shelf space on how goods are bought and sold.

Anderson argues that as computer processing speed doubles every 18 months (Moore’s Law) and internet bandwidth trebles every year (Gilder’s Law), the cost of anything made of bits and bytes will reduce in cost so far over time that you might as well round it down to zero.

He then explores a host of other business models that survive by making it possible to offer one product or service for free, by charging for other related products or services.

A quick trip through history finds the obvious example of Gillette razors, where the reusable razor was virtually given away because customers would buy disposable blades forever.

Or the budget airline model where seats on flights can be sold for free because money is made in other ways: advertisers paying to reach the passengers; credit card handling fee; charging for check in bags, even charging cities who want the airline to land there because it boosts tourism.

The book rambles a little as it compares different business models and illustrates their strengths and weaknesses with examples from the past and present. Most readers will draw inspiration from only a handful of these examples that chime with their thinking or directly relate to their current businesses.

The central idea - that free is a price that touches ever-expanding parts of our personal and business lives - is woven throughout.

Perhaps the most insightful moment in the book comes from research by behavioural economists who compared the reaction of people to buying a chocolate bar at a very low price, to their reaction when given it for free. Even though the chocolate with a low price tag was so cheap it made little difference in people’s wallets, the psychological barrier of parting with any money at all was enormous when compared to the instant uptake of the free offer.

In summary, any business that is able to offer something for free will find a much larger customer base than a business that charges. That hardly qualifies as the greatest innovation in business thinking this century, but finding ways to exploit a price of zero, and make money elsewhere for a business, is a challenge that is increasing day by day.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai must be delighted. According to a poll on its own web site, 61 percent of commuters will use the Metro to get to work once it is launched.

A mere 21 percent of the population will not use it to get to work, and 16 percent are undecided.

This is not a small poll where only RTA employees cast their votes. The web site counter says that 18,901 people have voted.

On the same web site a few months ago, an almost identical poll asked whether people will use the new public buses in Dubai. 59 percent said they will.

The results of these surveys are not necessarily contradictory. After all, it is possible for six out of every ten people to commute to work on the Metro, and to use new public buses. Indeed, this is exactly what the RTA would like: catch a bus from home to the Metro stations, and continue your journey to work on the train.

So it seems that what the RTA wants, it gets, even when it comes to results of spot polls on its web site.

The trouble with being a global statesman, world-renowned horseman and UAE Prime Minister these days is that it is so hard to keep up-to-date with the restaurant and nightlife scene in your home town.

Thankfully, Time Out Dubai (sister publication to Arabian Business) has come to the rescue of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

His Highness maintains a popular page on Twitter, with a healthy 4411 other tweeters following his every move and thought.

In turn, his Twitter page follows a mere 13 sources of news and information, among them venerable news sources such as Reuters.

But when it comes to the important stuff about Dubai: eating out, shopping, sport, music and film, His Highness trusts none other than Time Out Dubai, the city’s preeminent “Intelligent Guide to Life”.

Follow His Highness at http://twitter.com/HHShkMohd, and follow his lead through to TOD’s twitter page at http://twitter.com/timeoutdubai.