News

Yango Unveils Yango Play For GCC Region

The AI-powered entertainment super app features movies, TV series, music, and mini-games.

Published

3 years ago

February 15, 2024

Nour Nasir

Yango

Entertainment company Yango has introduced Yango Play for the GCC region. The innovative entertainment service uses artificial intelligence and boasts a wide array of entertainment, including exclusive premieres of Arabic and international movies and series, personalized music streaming, and interactive mini-games.

The service is now accessible in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, plus other GCC nations, offering cross-platform compatibility for smartphones and TVs.

yango play gcc region

The Yango super app prioritizes authentic content, supporting regional production studios and artists. By serving as a platform for local talent and offering original content that resonates with cultural identity, Yango Play contributes to the diversification of the regional entertainment landscape.

Multilingual AI Companion

Integrated into Yango Play, Yasmina is a bilingual AI assistant proficient in Arabic and English. Fluent in Khaleeji and capable of understanding various Arabic dialects, Yasmina recommends music, engages in conversation, and provides information on a wide range of topics, enriching the user experience.

Customized Endless Music Streaming

Central to Yango Play’s offerings is an AI-powered music streaming service that creates personalized playlists based on user preferences, highlighting regional favorites. This ensures a unique and tailored experience for each user, with evolving recommendation technology adapting to individual tastes and cultural nuances.

roman shimansky yango play mena region business director

Roman Shimansky, Yango Play’s MENA Region Business Director, expressed the company’s dedication to providing an enjoyable entertainment experience: “Whether by curating uplifting music for your drive, engaging shows for family time, or quick games for a brief pause in your day. We are deeply committed to enhancing these experiences through our original content and strategic collaborations with regional creatives, ensuring that each choice on our platform is a step towards discovering vibrant new emotions”.

Also Read: Saudi Arabia Plans Huge Adventure Tourism Oil Rig Facility

Featuring titles like the acclaimed Arabic blockbuster “Mr. Ex” and the sequel to the beloved classic “Awlad Harim Kareem”, Yango Play will continue to expand its catalog with top-tier acquired and original content. New users enjoy a 60-day free subscription, with a subsequent paid plan available at 29.99 AED per month for multiple devices in the UAE.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

1 week ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.