Emirati social networking app dedicated to anime gains following across the GCC

Anime Talk is a forum for fans of the Japanese genre to speak about the topic

Hesham Alkhazraji and Yousif Almaazmi co-founded an app with Bassam Elshorafa (not pictured) to keep in touch after they returned from university in the US. Antonie Robertson / The National

A social networking app created by friends to stay in touch is attracting a following across the GCC.

First devised as a casual "online majlis" to discuss any topic, the app is now dedicated to anime – a catch-all term for animations created in Japan.

The idea is similar to Clubhouse, an audio-only app that features a network of conversation rooms.

But Anime Talk also includes a chat function to allow users to organise events.

The rooms feature speakers, listeners and a host who decides when people can talk.

It launched in December on the Apple app store, and has since attracted almost 1,000 users, most of whom live in the GCC.

The app was created by Yousif Al Maazmi, Bassam El Shorafa and Hesham Al Khazraji who met at college in the US. The idea came after they struggled to stay in touch when they returned.

“So we thought of a way to have an online majlis to compensate for the physical distance between us,” said Mr Al Maazmi, an Emirati from Fujairah. Mr Al Khazraji is an Emirati from Dubai and Mr El Shorafa is Palestinian American who was born and brought up in Dubai.

“In a majlis, it is a living room that anyone can come in and come out. The major beverage is chai, which is tea, or coffee.”

Some people initially used it for interviews. Others liked to talk about sport.

"What caught our attention was people who liked to talk about anime," Mr Al Maazmi said.

“Anime is a cartoon. But most anime viewers aren’t kids. They are adults.”

Anime is a huge industry – worth more than $24 billion in 2019 – and it has continued to grow in popularity during the pandemic.

In 2020, anime fans helped make Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train Japan's biggest box-office hit, at a time when Covid-19 left a $32bn hole in the global cinema industry.

Its fans are spread all over the world. But in this region it is particularly popular in Saudi Arabia, which recently released its own anime film, called The Journey, that was produced in conjunction with a Japanese company.

“What we discovered was the GCC has high viewership of anime. And I think there was some research that found Saudi Arabia had the third-highest number of viewers [worldwide].”

So the app was switched to cater for anime fans only.

"The amount of content generated by anime is more than football and reality TV," Mr Al Maazmi said. "It's a huge market that has yet to be tapped.

“And this is the first audio-only social media platform dedicated exclusively to anime.”