Being in the business of digital sports ticketing and event management, Hala Yalla was among the start-ups negatively impacted by the coronavirus-related safety measures which saw the cancelling of all in-person entertainment events.
But the Saudi-born digital platform was quick to diversify into the organisation of e-sports and gaming events and therefore managed to sustain itself during the lockdown, said co-founder Nadeem Bakhsh.
In an interview with Arabian Business, Bakhsh talked about how Hala Yalla grew from a digital start-up which organised sports matches back in 2012 to a ticketing and events management platform that has managed 500 events and 100 tournaments to date.
Hala Yalla also has 1 million registered users and 10 million viewers on live streaming.
AB: How did Hala Yalla come about and what was the market need for such an app?
NB: We wanted to make it easier to have fun in Saudi. All of us co-founders grew up in Saudi and, while we loved our childhood here, it was always a pain to find things to do to keep us entertained outside of hanging out at each other’s homes playing video games or eating out. Even when there were events or activities for entertainment or sports, we often didn’t find out about them until after they’d already happened.
The earliest version of Hala Yalla actually focused only on the aspect of organising sports matches, mainly football, with friends, discovering matches happening around you that needed players, and booking venues to play in. But once we started approaching venues to sign deals for bookings it became clear that there was a much bigger opportunity as the vast majority of sports venues were not set up for online business.
The more we looked into it, the more we realised that it wasn’t just sports venues: almost every venue that relied on bookings or tickets were still doing things offline.
Off the back of this discovery, we quickly expanded the scope of our app and started moving towards the idea of building an entire platform, connected through the Super App, which would encompass a full end-to-end digital ecosystem that would support businesses as well as users.
Beyond the immediate desire to solve a specific problem we’d all faced and knew most others had too, we also had a more ambitious motivation. Even at that time eight years ago, Saudi Arabia already had one of the most digitally connected populations in the world with some of the highest usage rates of the biggest media and social network platforms. But none of the apps or websites people used were built here in Saudi Arabia or designed for local experiences. It was this disconnect that really lit a fire for us: if we’re some of the biggest users of tech in the world, then it only makes sense for us to be building our own tech products to put out into the world.
AB: What was the impact of coronavirus on Hala Yalla?
NB: As a result of the lockdown and restrictions on social gatherings, we, like many others in the entertainment and sports space, faced a significant impact in our field. At the time, the primary focus of Hala Yalla was mega-events, sporting activities, and other entertainment events, all of which were effectively shut down overnight.
However, we were able to pivot very fast to e-sports and gaming, a strategy that played a big role in helping us get through the lockdown. We started with running a series of Stay At Home tournaments on the e-sports arm of Hala Yalla which is called Kafu Games. Players of all skill levels competed in multiple tournaments of FIFA, Fortnite, PUBG, Overwatch and more for prize pools.
Soon after, we hosted this year’s Gamers Without Borders season, in partnership with the Saudi Federation of Electronic and Intellectual Sports. One of the largest global e-sports competitions, Gamers Without Borders raised $10 million for charities at the forefront of battling Covid-19.
E-sports and gaming were already a fast-growing industry in entertainment but, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, that growth has only been accelerated and we’ll continue to invest in growing our offering in the space.
Although we’ve seen the end of the lockdown, it’s clear that it’s still going to take some time for the event and entertainment industries to get back to the pre-corona era. While we’re keen on continuing on the same trajectory we were on prior to the pandemic, we believe that the trend of ‘virtual experiences’ that saw a surge of popularity during the first few months of corona will actually continue. While they won’t replace real-world experiences, we foresee that these virtual experiences of live music, classes, personal training, etc will continue to develop in a way that supplements how people pursue sports and entertainment.
AB: What are the technologies that Hala Yalla is currently using from different sources and is there an Application Programming Interface (API) data link with external parties, for example?
NB: All our technologies are API ready and open API standardised which makes integration with third-party services and solutions easy. As a platform, Hala Yalla is built in a modular way which makes it easy to architect new requirements based on our existing technologies.
Moving forward, we’ll be partnering with relevant third-party service providers to integrate directly with our platform. This will allow them to get direct access to our growing user base, essentially providing them with a direct digital connection to their target customers.
Integration by third parties into our platform will provide growth opportunities for both us as well as third parties, making it a win-win situation. Third parties can enhance their digital offerings without having to build it from scratch, and we can provide our users with additional services and products.
Beyond API technologies, we’re also continuously working on a range of R&D projects with the latest technologies, including blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
AB: Is blockchain integrated with the app? If not, are there any plans to implement it in Hala Yalla Super App?
NB: Blockchain is an exciting technology that we absolutely plan to implement as part of disrupting event management and ticketing solutions. At the moment, our work with blockchain has been part of our R&D efforts and is not yet rolled out to users. Originally this was going to be something we delivered this year, but after the pandemic hit, it was pushed back on the roadmap.
Beyond events and ticketing, we’re currently using blockchain to build a secure and fail-safe gamification/rewards engine. This is a key priority at the moment for many businesses in the services and e-commerce industries as they focus on doubling down on customer loyalty and returning customers.
We’re also working on implementing blockchain technology into our e-sports and gaming efforts.
AB: What are your next plans, and do you intend to expand outside Saudi Arabia?
NB: While Saudi Arabia is our primary focus at the moment, regional, and then international expansion, is definitely on the roadmap. We’ve already started with providing our e-sports & gaming offerings in international markets with tournaments dedicated gamers in specific countries around the world.
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