CEO of My Book Qatar, Abdullah Soomro (left) and Director of Marketing & Partnerships at My Book Qatar, Faraz Waqar
My Book Qatar App has achieved more than 50 percent growth in the number of users in the local market in the year 2020, despite the challenges of the pandemic year. “Our company has rapidly emerged as one of the leading providers of digital app-based offers in the country.
We have already serviced more than 100,000 satisfied, active app users in total in Qatar. In 2020, we have seen more than 50 percent growth in the number of users downloads” Abdullah Soomro, CEO of My Book Qatar, told The Peninsula.
My Book Qatar is a ‘Discover & Save’ platform helping consumers save money through thousands of Buy-1-Get-1-Free offers at its network of more than 1,000 outlets across various categories. It was the first local Qatari company & app launched in the country that allowed customers to redeem Buy-1-Get1-Free offers using their smartphones.
The My Book App can be used to avail offers across cafes, fine dining & fast food restaurants, hotels & staycations, theme parks, spas, salons, gyms, fitness centres etc. “Before the pandemic in early 2020, we had about 60,000 users, we ended the year 2020 with 100,000 users and currently we are touching around 130,000 users.
Moving forward we are looking at two things – firstly expansion, regarding which we are in talks to grow our base of partners in addition to the existing ones and secondly, going deep in Qatar,” Abdullah said.
“We are looking at strategic partners who could help us expand and we focus more on going deep within Qatar as a lot of things are changing like digital payments, banks, as new consumer trends are coming in,” he added.
“The application has about 140 plus merchants offering Buy-1-Get-1-Free offers on takeaway. We have partnerships with some of the leading companies in Qatar including Mastercard, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Ezdan Real Estate, Alfardan Exchange, AlKhaleej Takaful Insurance and more.
Our business model relies on two main sources of revenue, firstly the consumers who purchase the My Book Qatar App, secondly, we have a base of corporate customers who purchase My Book subscriptions for their employees, customers, and partners,” Abdullah added.
The merchant names added to My Book Qatar App that have received the best response from our app users over the last 12 months include Samsung, Chili’s, Papa John’s, Tim Horton’s, Biella, Applebee’s, Cold Stone, Cinnabon, Caffe Vergnano 1882, Dominos Pizza, City Centre Rotana, Fraser Suites, Movenpick Hotel, Angsana Spa, Guerlain Spa, 18th Avenue, The Torch, The Manhattan Fish Market, The Noodle House, Baskin Robbins, Kaldi 850 Coffee, Haagen Dasz, Angry Birds, Snow Dunes, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, Sushiminto, Outback Steakhouse, Chowking, Magnolia Bakery, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Ocean Basket, Shater Abbass, Lord of the Wings, Hasan Kolcuoglu, Wrap It, Burj Al Hammam, Johnny Rockets, Maison De Sushi, Shanghai Garden, Emigran Sutis, Raddison Blu Hotel.
He said, once you sign in the My Book App, the offers are generally locked, and you have to either purchase the subscription or as a user you will get a VIP key which is basically a code that will help you unlock the offer.
A normal customer purchases it from app store but companies such as MasterCard or Vodafone Qatar provide it complimentary to their customers. Faraz Waqar, Director of Marketing & Partnerships at My Book Qatar said, “We are all about discovering new experiences, entertainment and massive savings. Our app users now avail offers worth more than QR20m annually through our app.”
“Our app has managed to convert during lockdown hundreds of offers to takeaway and which was a major boost. My Book Qatar App has brought benefits for merchants and businesses as we promote their business through our customer base. The app is very beneficial as they get exposure to so many customers,” he added.
