Saudi Arabian 'honesty' app takes Internet by storm

Riyadh

FIZZING with boyish exuberance, Saudi programmer Zainalabdin Tawfiq could be mistaken for a college freshman, but the popularity of his "honesty" app has shone a spotlight on the conservative kingdom's nascent tech scene.

Mr Tawfiq catapulted to fame when he took time out of his day job as a business analyst last year to develop an anonymous messaging tool called Sarahah - honesty in Arabic - that subsequently topped the charts for app downloads.