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Cinema screens in Saudi Arabi to reopen mid-April after 35 years

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Riyadh, April 5 (IANS) Saudi Arabia will open its first cinema in over 35 years on April 18 as part of a deal with the world’s biggest cinema chain AMC to open up to 40 theatres in some 15 Saudi cities over the next five years.

The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information granted on Wednesday the first licence to America’s AMC to operate a theatre, the Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday. The first AMC movie theatre will open in Riyadh.

The past year witnessed the start of a huge drive to bring entertainment to Saudi Arabia as part of Vision 2030, an ambitious plan for economic and social reform by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Al-Awwad said: “The opening of cinema theatres will help support the local economy keeping the spending by families within Saudi Arabia in addition to contributing to creating new job opportunities in the Kingdom.”

It is expected that the Kingdom, whose population exceeds 32 million, the majority of whom are under 30 years of age, would form the largest market for cinema industry in the region.

According to Saudi Gazette, about 350 movie theatres with over 2,500 screens will be opened by 2030.

Saudi Arabia had cinemas in the 1970s, before they were closed. Saudis have in the past travelled abroad to get their entertainment fix because of restrictions in the deeply conservative country. Ahmed Al Khateeb, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, said Saudis spend roughly $20 billion a year overseas on entertainment and tourism.

The Saudi government wants its citizens to spend more on entertainment and tourism inside the country, said Al Khateeb.

Besides cinema openings, Cirque du Soleil will come to Riyadh this year. The city of Jeddah hosted the kingdom’s first-ever Comi-Con in February, he said.

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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