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Over The Top (OTT) digital media services provider Basebone announced it will be significantly bolstering its Arabic-focused content within its flagship product baseplay™ as part of its expansion strategy within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The move comes on the back of ballooning demand by its regional fanbase for culturally-inspired short-form content, especially among its youthful audience in the diverse MENA region. In the first half of 2022, Basebone accumulated over seven million signups in its top markets by leveraging data and technological innovations. This represent a growth of 43 percent year-on-year with a projection to reach 18 million by the end of the year.
Post-pandemic, short-form video content has disrupted the creative and digital industries driven by a vibrant and fast-paced youthful demographic. Building on this trend, the company has now embarked on a sustained strategy to implement the same functionality into baseplay.
“We are very excited over how the MENA expansion has been developing positively, and our local content strategy has gone above and beyond expectations. We are striving to support the local community, by allowing individual creators to monetise their content on our platform. We are confident that this move will inspire regional creators to make and share meaningful content and, in turn, help the brand to establish itself not just as a leading service provider in the region but an enabler in the local creator economy,” said Michael Holmqvist, CEO, Basebone.
Basebone is designed to engage users, and aid creators in producing quick, easy-to-create, and digestible content. Short-form video content, which is not more than two minutes long, has become an essential part of the video consumption experience. This, according to Benito Alvarez, CMO, will significantly boost local short video content creators to be more innovative and to create a deeper connection with their respective followers.
Cutting a niche
In an effort to grow their popularity, a new generation of Arab content creators are making their voices heard. Vibrant regions including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have become launch pads for creatives due to their rich cultural diversity.
Basebone has been at the forefront of encouraging creators to share their stories with the world by publishing exclusive content that is only found on baseplay and non-exclusive content that can be found on other websites.
“Thanks to our latest innovations, our users can now access thousands of content types in their local language, including documentaries, books, games and content from some of the best talent in the region such as beauty blogger ‘Beauty by Lama’, lifestyle content creator ‘Mohammad Matar’, and business guru ‘Eli Khudari’,” added Michael.
