At our June event, CoE E-Commerce, Abed Agha, Founder and CEO of Vinelab, moderated a panel on The World of E-Commerce, Beyond Physical Goods. Agha interviews panelists Fares Akkad, Head of Digital Business Development at MBC, Nour Khrais, Founder and CEO of Maysalward, Eli Habib, Co-Founder and CTO of Anghami, and Karim Sarkis, CEO of Sync Media about trends in the MENA entertainment industry including music and gaming.

In Part 2, Sarkis discusses how stars on YouTube often had a much greater audience than popular television shows in the region. He delves into the differences between the “old” and “new” world of entertainment media and the importance of merging television and online media for a successful brand.

Habib discusses why Anghami chose iOS as the starting platform for their app, with the goal to move to Android in the near future. iOS offers them the ability to more easily create a beautiful app and attract subscriptions.

He also discusses the cost of signing up subscriptions on iOS and how to keep the highest percentage of revenue from an app. Khrais adds that iOS actually gives app developers a large percentage, 70% of the revenues, compared to other services.