Company on track ‘to build future of social media’: Million CEO

Julien Hawari, CEO of the emerging social media platform Million, is promising to build “the future” of the sector.

Interviewed recently during the World Economic Forum’s special meeting in Riyadh, Hawari said: “Today, if you look at legacy social media (Instagram, TikTok, X), content creators are not really making money on social media. To make money, they need a third-party relation, which is the sponsor, the advertiser.

“The problem with this model is that the moment you open the door to someone to pay you, you allow this person to impose their narrative. So you’re not doing your narrative, you’re doing the narrative of the brand.”

Hawari, who promises to build “the future of social media,” said Million’s subscription model enables creators to monetize various forms of content, including pay-per-view, live streaming and e-commerce, all within the platform itself.

Million, a UAE-based startup launched in February across the Middle East and North Africa region, aims to empower content creators by giving them greater control and facilitate direct engagement with their audiences.

Hawari said he is developing a platform where users do not “lose their authenticity with their fans and audience base” and where creators can earn a larger portion of the revenue generated.

“We have an engagement-to-earn model. The more time they (creators) spend on the platform, the more money they will get. Seventy percent of advertisement revenue that comes to the platform is redistributed to the users,” Hawari said.

He added that creators can also charge their audiences a monthly subscription fee, similar to existing exclusive content platforms like Patreon.

Million is currently open to all types of content creators, including those in food, fashion and sports. However, creators must apply and undergo a review process before being invited onto the platform.

Platform regulation, including creator vetting and content monitoring, is a significant aspect of Million.

“We’re extremely sensitive to our culture, our situation in this part of the world. So we use technology … to ensure that content is within the norm of the region,” Hawari explained.

He said Million seeks to capitalize on an industry projected to grow significantly over the next few years, with the content-creator economy estimated to surge from $100 billion in 2023 to $480 billion by 2027.

“(Million) is really the first (app) of its kind. And the growth and the potential that this app has is way beyond only this part of the world,” Hawari said.

“Every day we get more and more creators that are more and more starting to learn and understand how they’re going to use this platform to make a living because at the end of the day, it’s their image, it’s their business, it’s their rules. So they decide what they want to sell (and) at what price they want to sell it.”