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

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

2 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.