![]() “It should be local and international investors, whether from venture capital funds or private equity, or foundations. We will continue doing Omar & Hana, but we will also create new intellectual property content, release more apps and have global distribution,” said Sinan.ĭigital Durian is seeking funding to achieve its international aspirations. “The biggest change is the direction of the company, with a long-term goal to become a world-class entertainment company with an Islamic essence. “It is helping monetisation, and it is also diversification, to not have everything in the YouTube basket,” said Sinan.ĭigital Durian is now expanding its plans with a roadmap for 2030. Rolled out in Malaysia, Omar & Hana content is being used for educational modules. “It has been quite painful, as licencees are not that tech savvy,” Sinan said.Īs the merchandising channel weakened, Digital Durian pivoted in a new direction, developing a pre-school curriculum. Operated through a licencing model, Digital Durian was not able to force licencees to adopt new sales strategies, such as through e-commerce. Merchandising of Omar & Hana toys and accessories has been hit by the drop in foot traffic at retail outlets in Southeast Asia due to the pandemic. “In monetisation terms is not up to YouTube levels, but that many downloads in less than a year is good digital growth outside of a streaming platform,” said Sinan. ![]() The need to reach more eyeballs and the monetisation challenge pushed Digital Durian to release a dedicated Omar & Hana app, which has been downloaded half a million times. Saudi Arabia accounts for around 40% of viewers.Īn Urdu channel was also launched, attracting 30,000 subscribers, primarily in Pakistan. Since September 2020, the Arabic channel has attracted 700,000 views a day and has 210,000 subscribers. We weren’t doing it right the first two times, but now we’ve nailed it and growth has been pretty organic, alhamdullilah,” said Sinan. “We started dubbing into Arabic three years ago, but we did not really understand the market, or what Arabic dialect to use. Similar to many content producers and companies that accelerated digital expansion plans due to the pandemic, Digital Durian sped up Omar & Hana’s Arabic launch. It pushed growth and revenues up again,” Sinan said. “We pushed out YouTube channels in more languages and produced more content. The loss in revenues has prompted Digital Durian to alter its business model. “There is not much we can do about that, but YouTube is still a platform we believe in as it is free for the masses,” said Sinan. tax requirements this year deduct 30% of earnings on YouTube. In another hit to content creators like Digital Durian, new U.S. YouTube is facing a similar legal challenge in the UK for $3.2 billion. Federal Trade Commission for allegedly violating COPPA, which restricts the collection and use of data from children under 13 years old without parental consent. However, in September 2019, the owner of the streaming platform, Google, was forced to reach a $170 million settlement with the U.S. ![]() “The pandemic affected everyone, but it was the USA’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that impacted us, with a drop of 60-70% in YouTube revenues last year,” he said.ĭigital Durian’s business model is based on advertising revenues generated from the world’s most popular free-to-watch platform, YouTube, split 45% for the platform and 55% for the content creator. There were some 2 million views per day during Ramadan this year.ĭespite such high viewing numbers, “the last year was challenging,” Sinan Ismail, CEO of Digital Durian told Salaam Gateway. When an English language channel was launched, Omar & Hana attracted an international audience, with 830,000 now subscribing and daily views reaching 100,000. Launched in 2017, the show about four and six-year-old siblings Omar and Hana quickly became popular in Malaysia, with its YouTube channel now nearing 5 million subscribers. legal cases on data collection from children’s content on streaming platforms, while the COVID-19 pandemic has hit merchandising. Monetisation has been impacted by a new tax policy and U.S. Islamic children’s cartoon Omar & Hana has been viewed over 3 billion times in 50 countries across its YouTube channels but this past year has been a struggle for Digital Durian, the Malaysian production company behind the show.
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