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WeBook to Boost Saudi Entertainment Sector Profits

People are seen at Boulevard Riyadh City. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
People are seen at Boulevard Riyadh City. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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WeBook to Boost Saudi Entertainment Sector Profits

People are seen at Boulevard Riyadh City. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
People are seen at Boulevard Riyadh City. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) plans to double WeBook’s revenues, the official ticketing platform for Riyadh Season, by adding new features.

These include exclusive live streaming of events and concerts. The goal is to boost profits, diversify income sources, and benefit the Saudi economy.

Turki Al-Sheikh, GEA Chairman, also revealed plans to list WeBook on the Saudi Stock Exchange, with expectations for it to become a billion-dollar company.

WeBook has already achieved impressive results, with ticket sales exceeding SAR 1 billion ($266.6 million) and over 11 million tickets sold. It has 5 million users from more than 160 countries.

During Riyadh Season, WeBook became the most downloaded app, with over 5 million downloads, giving access to more than 520 global events.

At a press conference on Wednesday for the upcoming Riyadh Season, Al-Sheikh announced that all events will be exclusively streamed on the WeBook platform. There will be two viewing options: a free version with ads and a subscription-based option without ads.

He also introduced a new feature allowing viewers to interact with artists during live concerts. Users will be able to vote for their favorite songs through the platform, enabling direct engagement between fans and performers.

WeBook’s new subscription options offer various packages tailored to user preferences and access to exclusive, limited-edition products. Subscribers can also join live discussions and bid on unique experiences and rare items.

The platform has enhanced the ticket-buying process with features like waitlists, improved resale options, a loyalty program, and faster payments via Apple Pay.

WeBook is working with authorities to fight ticket fraud, creating a team dedicated to this issue.

They have canceled over 18,000 counterfeit tickets and shut down eight black market sites. The platform has also banned over 5,000 accounts and monitored more than 3 million transactions.

In the past year, WeBook generated over SAR 45 million ($12 million) in revenue, served more than 65,500 users, and facilitated over 100,000 resales.

Additionally, WeBook has signed a deal with the Saudi Pro League to be the exclusive ticket platform for the next three seasons, starting in 2024-2025, allowing for early ticket sales.

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Egypt Central Bank Expands Lending to Government, but Inflation Slows

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the new headquarters of Central Bank of Egypt, at the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the new headquarters of Central Bank of Egypt, at the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
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Egypt Central Bank Expands Lending to Government, but Inflation Slows

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the new headquarters of Central Bank of Egypt, at the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the new headquarters of Central Bank of Egypt, at the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

Lending to the government by Egypt's central bank continued to climb in the last fiscal year, according to the central bank's newly released annual budget, even as inflation has slid from an all-time peak in September.

Central bank figures show "M1" money supply, which includes domestic currency in circulation and demand deposits in Egyptian pounds, jumped by 31.1% in the year to end-June 2024, after growing 33.4% in the fiscal year to end-June 2023 and 23.1% in fiscal 2021/22.

The sharp acceleration in money supply growth has come during four years in which Egypt's underlying economic weaknesses have been exposed by a series of shocks including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Headline inflation, however, declined from a record 38.0% in September to 25.7% in July, Reuters reported.

"If anything, M1 money supply in percent year-on-year terms has slowed from its peak of nearly 50% in February, which may be adding to the momentum of price changes (such as the decline in food inflation) in driving the headline rate of inflation in Egypt down over the course of this year," James Swanston of Capital Economics said.

As of the end of June, the central bank had 1.36 trillion Egyptian pounds outstanding in securities purchased from the finance ministry, up from 1.09 trillion a year earlier, according to its budget, released on Tuesday.

These included 940.3 billion pounds in local currency bonds purchased from the finance ministry as of end-June, up from 818.9 billion pounds in June 2023.

Egypt pledged to the International Monetary Fund in an $8 billion financial support agreement signed in March that it would reduce central bank lending to the government.

Egypt also promised that the central bank would stop sidestepping the finance ministry by lending hundreds of billions of pounds to other government agencies.

Such lending fell to 766.8 billion pounds as of end-June from 887.6 billion pounds a year earlier, according to the central bank budget.

Egypt pledged to the IMF in June that it would reduce such borrowing by other government agencies by 150 billion pounds by the end of June and by 100 billion pounds in subsequent years until it had fallen to zero.