CEO Medhat Karam: The company will produce and distribute more songs and strengthen Esaal’s video consultation service
ArpuPlus, a subsidiary of A15 digital technologies and products, unveiled its 2021 strategy for the MENA region, with the implementation of the most impactful and meaningful digital services remaining to be at the core of its comprehensive business growth plan.
Apart from disclosing its roadmap, the company also highlighted its success stories and achievements last year despite the challenging global market situation. One of the highlights of its journey in 2020 was the seamless digital distribution of some of the region’s popular music tracks such as Ya Habibi, Hayati Mesh Tamam, Al Ikhtiyar Series’ Ehna Mesh Betoaa Heddad and Hustla. The songs had topped the music charts of various billboards.
In addition to music, ArpuPlus continued to digitally distribute a large catalogue of Arabic films owned by its content partner, Rotana Cinema, bringing entertainment right at the fingertips of its subscriber base. It was also last year that ArpuPlus launched a website for video games in cooperation with a mobile phone operator. The website also sells game gift cards to its subscribers.
The company posted numerous milestones involving its Shofha portal as well. To exceed the expectations of many Shofha users, ArpuPlus introduced in 2020 a new app to the platform to enable subscribers’ access to their favorite movies. Regular Shofha content updates, including content categorizing for easier browsing, was also rolled-out last year for enhanced user experience. Meantime, Shofha took part in the production of horror film Ammar that was screened at the 2020 edition of Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF). Ammar was the only movie in the horror genre that was shown at CIFF.
“We are proud of our achievements last year despite the unprecedented circumstances impacting all industries. Similar to our other services, our Esaal platform also performed well in 2020. Approximately 500,000 users benefited from Esaal’s consultancy offering. A total of 100,000 and 30,000 users availed of its psychological and nutrition consultancy services, respectively, while more than 50,000 users had sought health consultancies regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19),” said Medhat Karam, CEO, ArpuPlus.
According to Karam, Esaal will continue to extend its video consultancy offering, a service recently launched by the company to offer mental health support to the platform users. Esaal features many psychological and mental health experts who render their service at affordable professional fees. Moreover, Karam reiterated that ArpuPlus will move forward with its e-payment policy that will activate multiple payment channels, including credit cards, to ensure users’ convenience.
The company’s other 2021 targets include producing four to six songs, launching a new video game platform and the unveiling of a sports news platform featuring the most popular international sporting activities.
“This year, we aim to exceed our accomplishments in 2020 by further improving our processes and enhancing the quality of our services in the Middle East. We will also collaborate with various new businesses to offer them our smart solutions, which let them connect with their end users through SMS and WhatsApp. Moreover, we target to expand our reach in all sectors, including retail, banking, and government sectors. It is going to be an exciting year for us at ArpuPlus and for our subscribers,” Karam concluded.
