Startup Spotlight: Emirati Media Company Cino Trends Is On A Mission To Produce UAE-Made Animated Content "What inspires us is the youth, since they are the main asset of all economies."

For UAE-born platform Cino Trends, the vision that underlies its creation is simple: to become an Emirati media company that produces locally made animated content for the youth of the nation.

Co-founded by CEO Sanad Al Senaidi and General Manager Kamel Al Kintar, and based in the capital city of Abu Dhabi, a YouTube channel has already launched as part of Cino Trends' offerings, and the platform itself is expected to launch by the end of September 2022. "Cino Trends is creating a YouTube channel that will have diverse shows, one of which is a new Emirati cartoon character that will be used for our branding and advertisement," Al Senaidi explains. "We are also planning to produce some animated series for our channel and other media platforms. Additionally, we aim to create comics, as well as sell gadgets, stationeries, and toys that are related to our shows. Finally, we are building an advertisement platform for both companies and individuals."

Here, Al Senaidi emphasizes that all these ideas are driven by one sole purpose. "What inspires us is the youth, since they are the main asset of all economies," he says. "Furthermore, we have realized that there are no limits to content production. Thus, we believe that we can create a variety of content that will be admired by viewers, and will show our capabilities as an Emirati company in this field."

Sanad Al Senaidi and Kamel Al Kintar, co-founders, Cino Trends. Source: Cino Trends

While Al Senaidi is clear about Cino Trends' offerings today, he admits that this wasn't the case when he first set out to conceptualize his venture- but this was where his participation in the MBRIF accelerator program helped. "The business model at the beginning was too broad, and was focusing on future revenue only, rather than present revenue," he recalls. "The MBRIF helped a lot in clearing the bigger picture for us, in order to build a legit and strong business plan. In addition, the MBRIF connected us with many important experts in the field to make sure that we had a strong base, and arranged workshops as well to widen our horizons."

As the Cino Trends team now gears up for its official launch, Al Senaidi remains conscious about the fact that they are about to deliver to an audience that consumes a lot of online content as it is. In 2021, as per a report by Statista, the top monthly online content activity of 66% of Internet users in the UAE was watching videos. Another study by Global Media Insights shows that, as of 2022, there are 9.978 million active social media users in the UAE out of a total population of 10.08 million.

Given this landscape, it's easy to see why Al Senaidi is planning to make use of a variety of plans for his enterprise to cater to it. "We are always focusing on quality and the benefits that our customers will gain from our platform and products, and therefore Cino Trends is aiming to make it feasible for everyone to use the platform to advertise- especially home and small business owners, as well as any individual that wants to present his or her show/product on our channel," Al Senaidi explains. "We are thus collaborating with Galeria application, a mobile application platform for all home business owners and small businesses to sell their products on. Moreover, as we previously said, we are aiming to create a unique Emirati cartoon character that will be a model worldwide that will assist us in reaching our vision."

Part of the vision Al Senaidi alludes to includes the production of "cinematic animation movies with Emirati characters that will mainly focus on the UAE," as well as organizing competitions with prizes to ensure audience engagement.

But through it all, Al Senaidi believes there is one aspect that will remain crucial to his firm's future success. "Innovation is what will make us standout among the crowd," he says. "We have many innovative ideas that will be executed at the right time and the right moment; so please stay tuned to see our latest innovations!"

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