Arabia goes big on entertainment

The portal has been re-focused to provide a variety of information aimed at its large customer base.

Entertainment, hot gossip, music and films, as well as educational channels are examples of the new emphasis of the portal. Online games, especially multiplayer, are
another pioneering service now provided by Arabia.com. Online games are fast growing in popularity as Arabia fulfils the regional vacuum and continues its focus on becoming the one-stop-portal for young people. The strategy that Arabia has
adopted is to team up with value added business partners in the industry and jointly develop channels that appeal to Arabia's target audience. One such relationship was established with Music Master International, where the latest news, exclusive interviews and pre-release music will be aired. An online streaming radio channel, playing the latest Arabic and English hit songs, serves as an additional entertainment tool for users while they browse through different sections of Arabia.

This move away from political reporting was explained by the fact that many global news providers have Arabic news and the market is already saturated. Arabia has always been ahead of the regional times in anticipating industry trends and well able to position itself to capitalise on new opportunities.

Initially, when the Internet was first launched in the region, Arabia was quick to offer its visitors a broad range of news and information services. Today Arabia is once again redefining itself to provide the services that its audience needs.

'The pre-launch preview of the portal has been extremely successful. The changes in the design are incremental and will become more and more evident over the coming weeks and months' said Mohsan Parvez, Arabia's CEO.