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Island Makanمكان About
Makanمكان

Makan means place.

A live map for Arab and Druze towns where every café, pharmacy and guesthouse has a real page, starting in Daliat al-Karmel.

Makan film still Drag to turn
StatusWorking prototype · beta build
3tabs: live map, interests, near me
6interest categories, one tap each
100businesses targeted in the pilot (Daliat al-Karmel and Isfiya)

  • Daliat al-Karmel is a Druze town on the Carmel with heavy weekend tourism, where almost nothing is on Google properly.
  • The businesses have a logo and a following; Makan gives each a page with hours, directions and a way to message them.
  • Local discovery for Arab and Druze towns, with no feed and no noise: where do I go in this town, right now?
Structure
A partner venture
An all-white plaster model of Daliat al-Karmel, lit by a low sun, with painted pins on a few buildings

  • Live map: the town drawn as its own map, with category pins, walking distances, and open or closed status.
  • Interests: six one-tap answers: coffee, something to eat, fashion, art and culture, bed and breakfast, services.
  • Near me: sorted by rating and real walking distance, open or closed, so a visitor never walks to a shut door.
  • A real page per business: gallery, hours, stars and buttons for Waze, WhatsApp and website.
Tabs
Live map · Interests · Near me
Build
Beta
Pilot
Daliat al-Karmel and Isfiya
A Makan business page: café banner, logo, star rating, and Waze, WhatsApp and website buttons

  • These towns are thinly covered by Google Maps and ignored by mainstream Israeli apps.
  • A clean market-size figure for Arab-town small-business marketing does not exist; the nearest public comparables are used instead.

  • A subscription, not an ad network: every business keeps its page with a small monthly subscription, the recurring line.
  • Once a town is dense, paid placement and offers layer on top of the subscriptions.

  • Sign the street: a local sales agent walks the town business by business and builds each page with the owner.
  • Print the map: a QR visitor map, made with the local authority and handed to weekend visitors.
  • It sells the app to businesses and tourists in the same motion, and it is the part big platforms never do.
  • Contacts in Daliat al-Karmel already exist, with a printshop and the local authority.
The printed Makan visitor map of Daliat al-Karmel, unfolded on a café table beside an espresso cup

  • Yelp: the model at scale, with annual revenue of $1.46B.
  • Nextdoor: neighbourhood-level local.
  • TheFork: local restaurant discovery, sold to American Express.
  • Salla: an Arab-sector local app that closed in 2025-26.

Sources: Stock Analysis, Jerusalem Post

  • Concept with a working prototype (map, interests, near me, business page) and a beta build.
  • Built with Flutter and Firebase, Figma prototypes and a full requirement sheet costed screen by screen.
  • Sample listings in the prototype: a laser clinic, a toy shop in Isfiya and a music shop.
Brand palette
Mint, lime, sun, coral, lilac (drawn in 2023)

  • Pilot town: Daliat al-Karmel and Isfiya, aiming at 100 businesses signed, the printed QR map out and one sales agent.
  • Every Arab town: sales agents by region, self-serve signup and billing, the paper map repeated town by town.
  • Regional: beyond Israel, with an offers layer on top of the subscriptions.
Watch the film