Saudi podcast Fnjan has achieved a record of over 100 million views for one of its episodes, featuring renowned relationship and communication skills trainer, Yasser Al Hazimi.
This outstrips the global viewership of a Joe Rogan and Elon Musk episode that reached 69 million views over the past five years.
The three-hour Fnjan episode delved into human relationships and achieving balance, differentiating between self-love and vanity, among other topics.
74 per cent of the viewers were from outside Saudi Arabia, the largest viewer demographic was between 25-34 age group and 21 per cent of the audience watched the episode with English subtitles.
Fjnan said many viewers attribute the episode’s appeal to Al Hazimi’s charismatic presentation and society’s urgent need to understand the dynamics of social relations, especially in light of the challenges of contemporary life.
Fnjan, which means a ‘small Arabic coffee cup’ in Arabic, is Thmanyah’s flagship podcast, hosted by the founder and CEO, Abdelrahman Abumalih.
Thmanyah is a Saudi media technology company that is also the largest producer of documentary films in Saudi Arabia.
It recently launched its ‘Radio Thmanyah’ application dedicated to listening to Arabic and international podcasts.
With more than 300 episodes produced, each with over 1 million views per episode, the show is known for its lengthy but deep conversations.
There are an estimated 10 million podcast listeners in the MENA region, and research conducted by Censuswide found that 15 per cent of the adult population in Saudi Arabia are podcast listeners, the highest proportion of ‘heavy’ podcast listeners.
