Facebook collaborates with Freej

Dubai: Facebook Messenger has collaborated with Freej, a home-produced 3D animated television series for children, to launch a sticker pack of locally created characters for Ramadan.

It is Facebook’s first initiative to launch a feature originally produced in the UAE. The Freej show premiered on September 24, 2006, during Ramadan, and has returned with new episodes traditionally debuting every year during Ramadan.

“People have maximum engagements online with their friends, families, and even with their favourite brands during Ramadan,” Jonathan Labin, Head of Facebook, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, said in a statement.

Facebook has 191 million MAP (monthly active people) of Messenger users in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and 167 million MAP on mobile in the same region, and over 600 million users globally.

While the stickers can be shared globally, the newly launched pack will be exclusively available to people in the MEA region, using both desktop and mobile.

After completing 10 years with the Dubai-based studio company Lammtara Pictures, Mohammad Saeed Harib, the creator and producer of Freej, said that with the rising popularity of stickers on Facebook’s Messenger, the debut of Freej at the Sticker Store is an exciting time and opportunity for us to stimulate conversations among the growing users on Facebook.