When one visits Dubai Media City (DMC), what is most striking is its massiveness and splendour. One cannot but admire what has been created out of this desert land.
A beautiful media complex, built around a picturesque man-made lake, Dubai Media City is rapidly becoming a leading global media hub where all media-related businesses can thrive. From waste land to paradise, Dubai Media City has grown remarkably since its launch in 2001. Its mission is to create and market world-class enabling services for the media industry.
A vision’s reflection
DMC is a successful realisation of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into a knowledge-based society and economy.
In the late 1990s, at the time of the dotcom boom, Sheikh Mohammed became interested in engaging Dubai in the so-called new economy. Business studies commissioned by Dubai Government revealed that the two most attractive industry clusters to promote were information technology and media. At that time, and even more so today, the Gulf region represented one of the fastest-growing markets for media and DMC was conceived as a strategic platform for global and regional media organisations to tap opportunities in this region.
Advantageously positioned at the crossroads of the Arab world, Africa and South Asia, Dubai Media City today has grown into a place where every kind of media business can operate with both a collective synergy and an individual freedom. The whole range of media services is represented. These include media and marketing services, printing and publishing, music, film, new media, leisure and entertainment, broadcasting and information agencies. The phenomenal success of the publishing and broadcasting segments of the media cluster at Dubai Media City led to the launch of more specialised projects: International Media Production Zone (iMPZ) and Dubai Studio City. iMPZ was launched as a free zone focused on the printing, publishing and packaging sectors and Dubai Studio City (DSC) for the film, broadcast and music production industries. Other initiatives launched from DMC include the Dubai International Film Festival and Ibda’a Media Students Awards.
Dubai Media City is a part of TECOM Investments, an umbrella organisation for knowledge-based industries clusters like IT, media, education and biotechnology. DMC covers an area of approximately 135 hectares hectares, with 2.75 million square feet of buildings.
Advantages accelerate investment
Companies within DMC enjoy the commercial benefits of free zone status, including 100% business ownership, a guaranteed 50-year exemption from personal income and corporate taxes. A free zone without import or export duty on goods or equipment is a tremendous attraction.
Businesses are at a significant competitive advantage with these relatively lower operating costs so familiar to this region. In fact, today Dubai Media City boasts over 1,100 companies with more than 9,000 knowledge workers.
Top international organisations such as Associated Press, Bertelsmann, CNN, CNBC, Afp, International Advertising Association (IAA), McGraw Hill Platts, Sony and Reuters have established in DMC. Today they rub shoulders with regional majors like Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Saudi Research and Publishing (SRPC) and Taj TV. Some of these companies even opted to move their regional headquarters to DMC.
One of the key factors behind the success of Dubai Media City is that it offers an environment that is rich with networking opportunities. This environment is further supported by a comprehensive framework of media laws and regulatory practices in place that ensure freedom of expression for media companies.
In addition, it provides a high performing and adaptable technology infrastructure as well as a business-enabling real estate network which makes Dubai Media City the ideal location for any media business to flourish.
Corporate concierge
Being a free zone development, DMC is a highly valuable asset developed in line with the Dubai government’s strategy to diversify its portfolio and become a knowledge-based economy. It is also a good example of how asset acceleration has taken place as a result of the synergies between the companies within the different zones. Companies within Dubai free zones benefit from the services provided by the management of the zones. For any problem, question or requirement that comes up, there is one point of contact within the zone that can address it. This bundle of corporate concierge services is the channel that has provided much of the accelerated value in the free zones.
Competition drives
reinvestment
A reason why prominent media firms establish themselves at DMC is the good infrastructure ranging from basic services to fully-built facilities, as well as local representatives to handle any administrative needs. After having completed its third phase of development, Dubai Media City continues to grow and expand. The city aims to offer companies more than just an office with doors and walls but a distinguished environment. Within the boundaries of Dubai Media City, companies have access to commercial, educational, retail, event management and hospitality facilities along with shared business centres, customer service centres, IT services and a well-maintained infrastructure. In their own right, the businesses in Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City are attracting a new calibre of employee, who demands good leisure and healthcare facilities and the right to own property. Therefore, projects are being developed to satisfy these needs. The way forward is that each strategy builds on the base of the previous one, thus expanding the strategic vortex.The origin of the city development is typical of large-scale projects in Dubai. Business solutions made easy. What more could one possibly need to succeed?
Few places in the world make you feel free to excel, to grow, to express. Dubai Media City is the best location for media businesses to enhance their productivity. It is the right setting to develop their ideas into viable businesses. For global media corporations targeting the region, this is the ideal strategic base to grow their business.