Global digital media investor North Base Media (NBM) has announced its investment in Abu Dhabi-based Majarra, a leading Arabic online content provider in the region.
“We’re delighted to have a high-quality and specialized investor like North Base Media as a believer in our vision for a new business model that addresses the massive inefficiency of Arabic online content,” said Abdulsalam Haykal, Majarra’s executive chairman.
“NBM’s global perspective and unique insight into the industry strengthens our commitment to deliver the best content and user-experience for the Arabic-speaking internet users in the region and around the world.”
Majarra, formerly Haykal Media, earlier this year announced a plan to offer a single-subscription sign-on to a network of reliable, high-quality online content platforms in Arabic.
The network so far includes Harvard Business Review Arabia, MIT Technology Review Arabia, Stanford Social Innovation Review Arabia, Popular Science, Fortune, and Manhom, the largest professional profiles service in the Arabic language.
Marcus Brauchli, NBM’s managing partner and former editor of both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, will join Majarra’s board of directors.
“We look for partners that combine content and technology to unlock the power of the internet in high-growth markets. Majarra combines a bold business vision, a solid track record, and a strategic approach to addressing the demand for quality Arabic-language content,” Brauchli said.
In a joint announcement in March 2021, Ammar Haykal, Majarra’s chairman and CEO, laid out the company’s approach.
The company’s leaders said: “We have a vision of a better, more useful and more engaging Arabic web. We hope that Majarra will become a catalyst to unlocking the Arabic web, ushering in a new dawn for an industry that is crucial to progress in our region.”
It added: “Business models that rely only on advertising revenue and audience size feed a spiral of lower-quality content. This is a massive lost opportunity for our societies.”
They said that Majarra “is a commitment to what we can do together to change the state of Arabic content online, and to what we can be together as a result.”