The secretive social and entertainment activities going global have always presented a visual sense of "making big money silently". They are rarely seen in public media, but with a single product, they have achieved a "small goal" of annual revenue exceeding 100 million overseas.

The release of financial reports from a few social media listed companies has become an opportunity to explore changes and trends in this industry.

Recently, Yalla Group and Chizicheng Technology (hereinafter referred to as "Chizicheng"), both known as the "Middle East Little Tencent", have successively released their 2023 annual reports. Compared with many Internet giants, the overall scale of these two social enterprises is not large, but their profits are considerable.

The annual report of Chizi City shows that the total revenue of Chizi City in 2023 is about 3.308 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18%; Net profit of approximately 761 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 165%; Adjusted EBITDA was 675 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 80%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 513 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 294%.

According to the annual report of Yalla Group, Yalla's annual revenue for 2023 was 318.9 million US dollars (approximately 2.3 billion RMB), with a net profit of 113.1 million US dollars (approximately 817 million RMB) and a net profit margin of 35.5%. The net profit for the same period last year was 79.038 million US dollars.

Based on comprehensive financial and market information, the social entertainment market in the Middle East is still filled with gold, especially voice room products that bring considerable revenue to enterprises. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and social products in segmented vertical markets are becoming the next new opportunity for entertainment to go global.

The Social Situation in the Middle East: "Monetization" and "Internal Competition"

The Middle East, rich to the point of oil flow, has always been a key hub for Chinese social products to go global, with numerous social enterprises achieving several "small goals" here.

A Middle Eastern tycoon who went global once revealed to the titanium media "Overseas Reference" that local users once spent over $50000 a day on a certain application. Fifty thousand US dollars, over 350000 Chinese yuan. With a snap, a one bedroom apartment is gone. But the wealthy are the wealthy, their hearts are as calm as water, continue to spend money.

The characteristics of the Middle East region are not only luxury, but also love to play and chat. When we switch to the Internet world, these characteristics become sociable, rewarding and gold loving.

The Middle East and North Africa region has the world's most addicted users to social media, with an average of 8.4 social media accounts and spending 3.5 hours a day on social media.

Therefore, the Middle East and North Africa have also become competitive hotspots for global social media platforms.

Not only are there Silicon Valley social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter here, but also social elites with Chinese backgrounds such as TikTok, Chizicheng, and Yalla Group.

In the Middle East, social media presents different business logics between the East and the West. The idea of Silicon Valley social media is to first generate traffic and then monetize it, while Chinese social media is directly focused on "making money".

According to the "2023 Middle East and North Africa Mobile Market Report" by data.ai, the top ten downloaded social apps in the region in 2022 are TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, etc. However, the most popular social apps for users to spend money in this region are almost all Chinese products, with TikTok, Bigo, Yalla, YoHo, TopTop and other products ranking high.