Dubai: The Arabic music streaming portal Anghami has tuned a first-half 2022 growth of 29 per cent into $21.1 million in revenues. Active users are higher by 46 per cent to 19.5 million, and – most important – monthly paying subscribers are 41 per cent up to 1.28 million.
The Abu Dhabi-headquartered entity listed on Nasdaq New York after a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) deal last year. “The first-half results should lead to a record year for Anghami in 2022,” said Eddy Maroun, co-founder and CEO. “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.”
Anghami has done some heavy hitting to keep the Arabic music fans keyed in. Arabic music streams now account around 60 per cent of total music streams – a 20 per cent year-over-year increase. That’s not all.
- Anghami has an exclusive partnership with Egyptian artist Amr Diab, the most streamed artist on the Anghami platform, with close to 1.2 billion. This exclusive partnership brings the legendary singer’s entire audio and video catalog, as well as future releases, exclusively to Anghami.
- In April, Anghami announced a strategic partnership with Rotana Music, the Arab world’s leading music label.
- In June, Anghami said it renewed its marketing collaboration with MBC Group (“MBC”) based in Saudi Arabia, the largest media company in MENA. Anghami will be featured across MBC’s programming in the region, giving ‘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 Arabic video streaming platform.
- Anghami also did the acquisition of Spotlight Events, a live events company. With a pipeline of more than 10 concerts this year, it could be a ‘record year for Spotlight’.
- There is also 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. Wajeez’s curated Arabic short-form content will be available on Anghami in the form of 15-minute audiobook summaries.
According to Jacob Cherian, Co-CEO of Anghami, “ We are confident that this positive trajectory will continue through 2022 as we benefit from our growing partnerships and offerings.”
