Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013
Dubai: Arabic songs and comedies are the top videos watched by Arabs on YouTube in 2013, according to a Google survey released on Wednesday.
“These videos show how YouTube is driving pop culture — users in the region love [Arabic] music and comedy,” said Maha Abouelenein, Head of Communications for the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region at Google. “These videos are coming from channels with millions of collective subscribers, keeping viewers coming back daily.”
Maha said YouTube is viewed more than 310 million times a day by viewers in the Mena region and the numbers are growing.
“The trending videos reflect the videos that were most talked about, shared and discussed in the region — not just views,” Maha told Gulf News.
According to Google, an American technology company that operates the world’s largest search engine, some of the most watched YouTube videos in Mena are those from the MBC music show, “Jalasant Wanasah”, which hosts big names in the Arabic music industry, such as Kazim Al Saher, Rashed Al Majid, Nancy Ajram and Amr Diab.
A video of a young Iraqi woman singing in the primary auditions of the Arab Idol was watched on YouTube by nearly 8.2 million viewers.
As for comedies, the Saudi satire “Eysh Elly” has more than a million subscribers, “making it one of the most watched shows on YouTube in Mena,” according to Google.
The Egyptian “Bernameg”, a satirical talk show hosted by cardiac surgeon Bassem Yousuf, is also on the top list after it gained some 5 million viewers in the first three months.
The animated, socio-political short talk show produced by the Amman-based “Kharabeesh” entertainment media network gets an average 27 million viewers a month, said Mohammad Asfour, CEO of Kharabeesh.
Speaking to Gulf News, he said more people are following YouTube because “first, is the short script. Ten, or five or three minutes will do the job, so the viewer will get the content in a short period of time...the second is the freedom of speech online,” he said in reference to the wider boundaries online content has when compared to published material or content aired on TV channels and radio stations.
The high internet penetration and the spread of mobile and tablet usage across the Mena region had helped the growing viewership of online content, he added.
Kharabeesh also posts videos with a social message.
A short video titled “What do you know of the flying flip-flop?” carries a message to stop domestic violence against children, which it says affects 300 million children around the world. The 2 minute and 55 second video has received around 1.7 million viewers.
By Jumana Al Tamimi Associate Editor
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
