Anghami: Striking all the right chords

Back in 2010, Eddy Maroun and Elie Habib realised that music streaming was the next big thing.

In 2010, Eddy Maroun, a musician at heart, and Elie Habib, a tech guru, realised that music streaming was popping up as a new trend globally. And with the adoption of smartphones expanding exponentially, they envisioned that it would be the next big thing. Habib and Maroun wanted to take a lead in the region by launching Anghami, a music streaming service that caters to the larger audience of Arabic-speaking population.
"Anghami fulfilled a need in the region," Maroun, co-founder of Anghami, tells Khaleej Times.
Anghami is the leading music streaming service in Mena (Middle East and North Africa), offering users the ability to listen and download unlimited Arabic and international songs on mobile phones and computers. Based on the freemium model, Anghami Free is the restricted version supported with advertisements with no offline support; Anghami Plus allows all features such as offline, no interruptions, lyrics and no ads.
Launched in 2012, Anghami has around 40 million users and around 600 million streams a month. It is the largest legitimate music service in the Middle East, with digital distribution agreements with local and global music labels. This includes Rotana, which gives Anghami exclusivity in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Lebanon; Universal Music; Sony Music; Warner; Platinum Records; Watary; Qanawat, among others.
Anghami also has a strategic partnership with the MBC Group and its investors' pool includes MEVP, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Samena Capital and du (UAE).
"Timing was critical to the success of our venture, coupled with the right strategic partnerships," says Habib, co-founder and CTO of Anghami.
Elaborating his expansion plans, Habib says there is still a lot of untapped potential in the Mena. "We believe that we haven't scratched the surface yet. We see ourselves expanding in various directions, whether geographically or among our users' base. Our expansion plans in the future might look towards Pakistan and Iran, for example."
Anghami has around 25 per cent of its users coming from outside the Mena, mainly representing the Arab diaspora. "We will also invest more into targeting the Arab diaspora globally," he says.
According to Global Industry Analysts (GIA), a worldwide business strategy and market intelligence source, the global market for music streaming is projected to reach $9.7 billion by 2020 "driven by the emerging new era of streaming media delivery supported by the proliferation of high-speed Internet, cloud technologies and the changing rules for accessing media in the emerging world of mobile and connected devices."
"Anghami is the first platform to bring music marketing into the region through audio ads and sponsored playlists. The solution is giving top brands the opportunity to exclusively customise a user's experience. It allows brands to localise their content in a unique and personalised way. It also gives the chance for brands to adapt to the culture and behaviour of the local markets," says Elie Abou Saleh, commercial director at Anghami.
On running a business in the UAE, Maroun says the UAE in general and Dubai in particular are great places to set up a business. It is a real business hub with plenty of facilities.
"Being based in Media City, in our case, makes it very convenient to meet everyone in the industry. We are literally located one block away from many of our business partners. In our case, DIC [Dubai Internet City] has been very supportive through its in5 initiative at the beginning of our venture," he says.
However, Maroun says, the success of Anghami is a journey of untiring struggle and hard work "as tech start-ups are a challenge by default."
"The evolution of the music industry and the transformation it is going through to settle on streaming as the future of access to music also present challenges. We encountered those in every phase of our growth. At the start, funding was an issue, then building the product and the content library, finding the right talent and sustaining the business in a region that never paid for music are some examples of these challenges," he says.
Anghami last year raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B investment round led by private equity firm Samena Capital, with the participation of du (Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company). Along with an equity stake, du has also aligned with Anghami commercially to "actively market Anghami to its user base in the UAE including bundling, data subsidisation and promotions."
With an expected turnover of $20 million in 2017, Maroun doesn't see today a need for additional funding. However, plans can evolve anytime and might require a round of funding to execute on.
Walid Mansour, managing partner at MEVP, says: "We were the first believers and invested right after meeting the founders Elie Habib and Eddy Maroun. Our bet on the founders turned to the right one, as they went on building the best technology and media company in Mena. Their product, vision and technology are simply world class."
Amin El Husseini, mobile business development and senior product manager at MBC Group, says: "It was a perfect combination: dedicated, skilled founders and a great product. MBC gladly went into partnering with Anghami, especially that the platform represents a strong answer to music piracy."
- riaz@khaleejtimes.com