Can a Muslim-Friendly Streaming Service Survive the OTT Wars? Qalbox co-CEO Thinks So

The streaming service in question today is Qalbox, a Muslim-friendly OTT that curates Muslim content from around the world and hosts them on the mega popular app Muslim Pro.

We spoke to Nik Emir Din, the co-CEO of Bitsmedia, the technology company founded in 2009 that created the Muslim Pro app which boasts 140 million downloads with top 5 markets being Indonesia, Malaysia, France, UK, and US.

Why a Streaming Service?

“Muslim representation in media is important, and so is empowering Muslim storytellers with a platform to tell their own stories.

"Given our global user base, we’re thrilled to be able to help shine a light on locally produced Malaysian shows with audiences all over the world and we hope to introduce even more Malaysian productions in the future," Nik said.

He also lamented the fact that Muslim not only lack representation, they're also represented poorly when they are on screen.

Another reason why Nik is enthusiastic about this space is that Muslims around the world are spending USD249 billion on media in 2022 (the exact breakdownn of what media wasn't provided) and, bolstered by the pandemic, media consumption is at an all time high.

While we still find the space to be extremely competitive, Qalbox has the advantage of a huge active user base. According to them, they have 4 million daily app users and 11 million weekly app users based on statistics from January to November 2022.

With an existing audience on Muslim Pro and the Qalbox tab already baked into the Muslim Pro app, it's not hard to see why diversifying into content for them was obvious.

It's their very own super app for Muslim users.

Highlighting Malaysian Creatives

Currently, Qalbox is already working with Astro, Pixel Play, Nads Media, and Vision New Media to produce content and to purchase content for Qalbox.

"Since we launched Qalbox, a lot of producers have already reached out to us. The only thing we say is that we want them to be aligned with the Qalbox mission: celebrating the Muslim community and identity".

One of the touted series that's available now on the service is I Am Muslim, a documentary that higlights the lives of 6 Muslim individuals living in different countries in Southeast Asia. One might imagine that the lives of Muslims in a majority Muslim nation like Malaysia is very different from their life in Thailand for example.

In production right now for release in 2023 is a global story about Muslim chefs around the world with many more to come. Since they're ostensibly a tech company, we asked Nik if he had any creatives in house who can tell which stories to create and which ones to buy, since you know, content is king.

"In a sense, we're not really creating something new but we're taking what already works and applying it to our context, which is the Muslim context. The important thing is that we have all of that (different types of genres of shows) accessible within Qalbox so that our customers can have access to content," said Nik.

"We don't think there's one person that will be able to tell us 'this is the perfect selection' (of content), we know what already works and we're making sure that we have that in our library. Ultimate our audience will tell us what works.

"The good thing about being a tech platform is that we will know exactly how many users are watching one particular title, how much time they're spending, so all that data will be fed back to us and that will really inform our strategy."

Why Launch Qalbox in Malaysia First?

The Qalbox app was technically launched in July 2022 as a minimum viable product (MVP). With the MVP, the team were able to work out the kinks and polish according to the feedback they received.

In December, the team felt it was time to official launch it here in Malaysia first with a worldwide launch scheduled later this year.

So, why Malaysia? "This market (Malaysia) is already attuned and familiar with Muslim-friendly content. Even our content creators who we work with are here and so are our local investor partners. The third thing is that our Malaysian audience are in our top 5 biggest markets so we want to give them the support."

Not Just Another Netflix

When thinking about streaming, it's very easy to think in terms of "It's just anothehr Netflix, but for Muslims." So we asked Nik who his competitors were in the market.

"We don't consider a lot of the mainstream streaming providers our competitors because we're very different. Our proposition is very focused on the Muslim identity. We have a safe and curated platform for the Muslim family.

"It's not just what content we do have on our platform, but it's also the content that we keep out of our platform."

Kind of like a Netflix or YouTube Kids that is strictly curated for the whole family. "So for families, they know that if they're watching on Qalbox, all the content in there is very safe."

While we still think the quality of content will ultimately determine the success of Qalbox, the streaming service has a lot going for it. It appears that they're working in a blue ocean: there are no clear competitors, it's a new market, and content should be relatively cheap to acquire since the economics of demand are on their side. All they need to do is convert their app users to subscribing users.

With the global launch coming in the horizon and more content promised, time will tell if we'll be back here in one year to sing its praises or to memorialise what was.