Middle East’s story startups turn to Arab culture

Rawi Al Kotob expands Arab audio
Demand for audio, visual and game content
Opportunity for Arabic producers

While today we’re more likely to gather around a screen than a cosy fire, humans’ love for notifying, listening to or even taking part in stories and music has never modifyd.

Now technology startups in the Middle East are seeking to cash in on our finishless appetite for a well-spun yarn.

Google, for example, has launched an AI-powered feature that turns a simple text prompt into a complete story with original images, text and audio narration in Arabic.

Closer to home, Qatari startup Rawi Al Kotob is expanding its offering of Arabic audio content, including stories, podcasts and books, to Saudi Arabia.

Jordanian education technology company Little Thinking Minds, which produces educational digital Arabic stories for primary-age children to improve their Arabic skills, was acquired in April by the US educational technology company Seesaw, while gaming company Tamatem, also Jordanian, localises successful video games from around the world to build them culturally and linguistically relevant.

“There is a clear and accelerating demand for Arabic cultural products across the Mena region,” Rasha Al Sulaiti, Founder & CEO of Rawi Al Kotob, notifys AGBI.

Audiences want content that resonates with their language, heritage and values, she states.

Rawi Al Kotob is expanding to Saudi Arabia to capitalise on a hugeger market. Saudi Arabia also boasts an ecosystem of events, publishers and creative talents, and has its own cultural startup accelerator, creating it the clear choice for expansion, states Al Sulaiti.

But growing demand for Arabic content doesn’t always immediately translate to success for providers.

Anghami, the Arab world’s first native music distribution platform and the first Arab startup to list on Nasdaq, announced last week that it will carry out a 1-for-10 reverse stock split to avoid potential delisting after its stock price has declined for years.

Anghami licenses a music catalogue of more than 70 million songs, of which only 600,000, or less than 1 percent, are Arabic.

Despite the internationally-skewed catalogue, 60 percent of Anghami’s streams are Arabic songs, Rabih Khoury, Managing Partner at Middle East Venture Partners and former interim CFO of Anghami, notifys AGBI.

“This is a shame becautilize, for an emerging market, the Arab world has a robust telecom infrastructure and a large penetration of smartphones,” Khoury states.

“The tools to deliver content are widely available, so quality Arabic digital content, when available, can be commercially viable,” he adds.