Anghami, regional music and entertainment streaming platform, has reported its preliminary results for the first half of 2022, ending June 30, 2022.
The primary insights, according to the streaming platform, were as below:
The total revenue grew 29 per cent year-over-year to $21.1 million. The number of monthly paying subscribers increased 41 per cent year-over-year. This growth was primarily due to higher conversion rates of advertising-supported users to paying subscribers and a higher number of active users, which increased 46 per cent year-over-year to 19.5 million users, resulting in increased advertising and subscription revenues. Anghami recorded negative foreign currency effects of $3.5m in revenue. Excluding these foreign currency effects and applying constant exchange rates year-over-year, revenue would have increased by more than 50 per cent year-over-year.
Anghami also said that Arabic content is the key to its future growth. The company has announced several partnerships and initiatives to bolster its offering of Arabic digital content and digital entertainment in the MENA region.
- On February 24, 2022, Anghami announced an exclusive partnership with Egyptian artist Amr Diab, the global megastar of Arabic music and the most streamed artist on the Anghami platform, with close to 1.2 billion streams. This exclusive partnership brings the legendary singer’s entire audio and video catalogue, as well as future releases, exclusively to the Anghami platform.
- On April 6, 2022, Anghami announced, a strategic partnership with Rotana Music, the Arab world’s leading music label and owner of the largest Arabic repertoire of unique content in music, media, entertainment, events, and content production.
- On June 21, 2022, Anghami announced that it renewed its marketing collaboration with its strategic partner MBC Group (“MBC”) based in Saudi Arabia, the largest media company in MENA. Under this strategic partnership, Anghami will be featured across MBC’s programming in the region, giving Anghami access to airtime across several top entertainment shows such as The Voice and Arab Idol, as well as MBC’s TV channels, radio stations, all of MBC’s major social media channels, and MBC’s Shahid platform, the world’s leading Arabic video streaming platform.
- On July 5, 2022, Anghami announced the acquisition of Spotlight Events, a leading live events company that specializes in creating and managing live events and concerts in the MENA region. As Anghami continues to develop into one of MENA’s leading digital entertainment platforms, offering the unique Spotlight live events product has accelerated Anghami’s inroads into the MENA entertainment scene. With a planned pipeline of more than 10 concerts this year, it could be a record year for Spotlight.
- On August 2, 2022, Anghami announced a partnership with Wajeez, the leading Arabic subscription service for reading and listening to more than 3,500 audiobook summaries of Arabic books and translated international bestsellers. Under this partnership, Wajeez’s high-quality curated Arabic short-form content will be available on Anghami in the form of 15-minute audiobook summaries to provide more options for digital Arabic content to Anghami’s growing Arabic audience.
”Propelled by Anghami’s strategic investments in Arabic content including, Amr Diab’s exclusive content, Rotana’s vast Arabic content repertoire, and WAJEEZ’s Arabic audible book library, the total number of music streams on the Anghami platform reached an all-time high in the first half of 2022, with Arabic music streams now accounting for nearly 60% of total music streams – a 20% year-over-year increase,” said Anghami in a statement.
Eddy Maroun, co-founder, and chief executive officer of Anghami said, “The first half results should lead to a record year for Anghami in 2022. We continue to listen to the needs of our loyal users by expanding our local Arabic content and improving our technology-enabled digital streaming platform. These are the key drivers that will maintain Anghami’s leadership position in the Arabic music streaming market and make Anghami one of the leading digital entertainment platforms in the MENA region.”
F. Jacob Cherian, co-chief executive officer of Anghami, commented, “Anghami remains committed to launching more innovative offerings, expanding its global reach and delivering value to customers through best-in-class content and innovative new features. We are confident that this positive trajectory will continue through 2022 as we benefit from our growing partnerships and offerings.”
