Anghami reports revenue of $35.5m in 2021, paid subscribers rise to 1.4 million

Anghami has filed its annual report for the year ended December 31, 2021. The company’s total revenue increased to $35.5m in 2021 – (a 16 per cent year-on-year rise) with the overall gross margin reaching 25.5 per cent.

During the year Anghami’s paid subscribers increased to 1.4 million, driven by improved customer retention, the introduction of new subscription plans and smart billing enhancements.

Subscription revenue reached $25.7m in 2021. Subscription revenue rose due to a focus on monthly subscriptions, which grew 47 per cent year-on-year.

Ad-supported revenues for the year increased, as brands restarted investment in advertising after the pandemic, resulting in a 70 per cent growth in ad revenue year-on-year, driven by an increase in bespoke branded content production, content promotion and in-house productions. Advertising revenues touched $9.8m – with advertising gross margin growing from 38 per cent in 2020 to 53 per cent in 2021.

Anghami also expanded its partnerships with telecom operators across the region from 35 to 41 as of December 2021 to offer its market leading music services to a larger audience.

In 2021, Anghami also partnered with Amazon Prime to offer its services to Prime members in the UAE and Saudi Arabia — and with Amazon Alexa to create an enhanced interactive experience for Amazon Echo device users. To this end, an integration with Amazon has been developed to provide users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with a seamless experience in Arabic and English.

Daily podcast users grew 77 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020, driven by improvements to the product. The podcast offering improved after Anghami partnered with multiple podcast networks and created its own podcast shows. This resulted in a 20 per cent year-on-year growth in the company’s user consumption of non-music content, further highlighting the growth potential of the podcast segment and product.

In May 2021, Anghami launched Live Radio, an innovative real-time music and audio experience that allows users to tune in, listen to music together and interact in real-time.

In August last year, Anghami announced a joint venture with Addmind, a hospitality group in the MENA region. It’s also expected to launch Anghami Lab in Q3 2022. This music venue, lounge and studio will start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, allowing music creators to collaborate and create music that will be performed at the venue.

Read: UAE-based Anghami partners with Addmind to launch an entertainment ‘Lab’

Anghami also launched Vibe Music Arabia — a joint venture label with Sony Music Middle East that will invest in independent and emerging Arab artists in the GCC, Levant and Saudi Arabia to create modern Arabic music with greater global appeal. Anghami expanded its in-house production capabilities to create a larger pipeline of Anghami Originals and Anghami sessions to provide local artists with a wider reach and more exposure.

Eddy Maroun, co-founder, and CEO of Anghami, said, “2021 was a very special year for us, with many significant milestones leading up to our listing on NASDAQ paving the way to achieve our growth goals that started to flourish in Q1 2022. In terms of partnerships, our exclusive deals with artists such as megastar Amr Diab, Original content and our label initiative Vibe Music Arabia with Sony Music, Amazon Prime & Alexa, TOD/BeIN and our renewed partnership with Rotana Music have strengthened our ability to provide an unparalleled experience to our users, with the largest Arabic content offering on top of the world’s repertoire. This is in line with our goal to expand the Arabic culture through content and technology. As we grow further towards being an entertainment platform, we are working to bring innovative concepts like Anghami Lab to life – to be the first immersive experience of its kind, connecting the online and offline worlds and bridging the gap between digital and traditional entertainment while supporting local creator communities.”

Jacob Cherian, co-CEO of Anghami, added, “Anghami has met many expectations in the run-up to its Nasdaq listing and remains committed to launching more innovative offerings, expanding its global reach and delivering value to customers through best-in-class content and innovative new features. We are confident that this positive development will continue through 2022 as we benefit from our growing partnerships and offerings.”

Read: UAE’s Anghami, first Arab tech company to list on Nasdaq, begins trading

Preliminary figures for Q1 2022
Preliminary unaudited total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 of $9.3m, an increase of 23 per cent year-over-year compared to the Q2 2021.

Subscription revenue increased 26 per cent year-over-year to $7.3m in Q1 2022, with average revenue per user increasing 10 per cent to $1.87. Telco partnerships expanded to 45 telcos by March.

The total number of active users increased by 20 per cent year-on-year to 18.5 million in Q1 2022. The growth of users was driven by increased localisation, namely in Arabic and original content, an improved recommendation engine, unique social features and special activations in several countries.

Anghami’s algorithms have continued to improve, resulting in a 7 per cent increase in monthly user engagement, as well as a 9 per cent year-over-year increase in median weekly streaming time reaching 82 minutes per day. On the social front, user interaction increased by 50 per cent during the same period.

Highlights this year
In Q1 2022, Anghami unveiled a completely new brand identity to support the next phase of growth. Anghami’s new brand positioning is underpinned by a new logo and visual identity, which consists of four coloured lines representing a “travelling voice” that carries Anghami’s message to the world.

In January, Anghami expanded its user base beyond the MENA region by partnering with SLING to provide subscribers in the US with special access and tailored offers for premium paid content.  The company launched an Arabic-only tariff for the first time, which currently has more than 35,000 subscribers and targets the mid- to-low price segment in Egypt, with an affordable tariff that can be deployed in other low average revenue per user or ARPU markets — supported by marketing from mobile operators.

In Q1 2022, the ‘Mic’ feature was introduced for all premium users, allowing them to create radio channels, to share discussions, music and more resulting in usage averaging 1 hour 5 minutes per day per active live radio user.

The company announced a strategic, exclusive, multi-year partnership with global megastar and most streamed middle eastern artist Amr Diab during February — as an exclusive platform for his past and upcoming music and video releases, in addition to other exclusive benefits. By March, Diab had recorded a 21 per cent increase in the streaming market share on the platform.

In April, the company announced the return of Rotana Music, the world’s largest Arabic music label, which also represents the largest group of artists from the GCC, after almost three years of Rotana’s absence from the Anghami platform. The Rotana Library supports the growth of the platform, especially in the key Saudi Arabian market where Rotana’s artist concentration is high, user interest is high, and we believe is expected to create more B2B opportunities.

During Ramadan this year, Anghami launched “Live Ramadan with Anghami,” a customised experience with a mix of spiritual, meditative and entertainment content – with special live broadcasts from content creators from partner networks on topics such as spiritual health, entertainment and sports. This campaign helped increase customer retention by 30 per cent compared to previous years. The platform also partnered with TOD from beIN to stream world class sports audio content starting in Ramadan to capitalise in the run up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The company has also partnered with LG TV in 17 countries across the MENA region, where Anghami will feature prominently on the smart TV launcher.