Beauty is a mega business in the world. Let’s now focus our attention on a Dubai-based make-up tycoon. The 34-year old lady founded Huda Beauty back in 2013.
Huda Beauty started out as a blog before expanding out into sale of actual products. Huda left her job in the field of finance where she felt disillusioned and resigned to concentrate on her new found job as a makeup artist.
In 2010 she launched her blog where she produced content on make-up tutorials, beauty hacks and skin care tips.
Huda Kattan is considered to be one of the most influential women in the entire Middle East. On Instagram she has 26.2 million followers. That is a huge audience which gives her a large leverage when bargaining for deals. Huda Beauty is estimated to be worth $500 million and Forbes value the beauty company at $1 billion.
Huda Kattan made a commercial breakthrough in the year 2013 when she collaborated with Alya and Mona. Alya worked for Huda as global president while her sister Mona is the Chief Instagram Officer. They worked and created false eyelashes. Customers like the product and was even noted by one Kim Kardashian.
Huda says that Instagram is the one which made her successful. It was the trigger that changed her life as a businesswoman. It was a powerful tool of communication for her business.
Instagram made it possible for Huda to work and reach people from all over the world. She produced videos which started to be viral on the internet. Courtesy of her hard work she has a total of 26 million followers on Instagram.
Huda inspires many people who look towards her. Many upcoming beauty bloggers and entrepreneur are inspired by the fact that she started small and was able to make it in this competitive online business.
At an estimated personal net worth of $550 million and Huda Beauty valued at $1 billion we can say that Huda is already a very successful blogger and entrepreneur.
Blogging
The business of blogging as well as vlogging has been embraced globally. Many people are increasing reading and or watching beauty content if analytics are to go by. For instance, the number of YouTube views have drastically increased from 4 billion in 2010 to 104 billion views in 2017. This is data from Pixability.
Huda is one of the most successful internet influencers that the world has ever had. She has successfully introduced a cult following for beauty products and above all she has inspired businesswomen and girls from the Middle East.
Huda is basically a success story that should be emulated by all. She is talented, hardworking and a good mum.
Huda and other social media influencers is one of the reasons for the increased spending on beauty products in the Middle East. It is estimated that consumers in the United Arab Emirates spend $228 per capita. This means that on average, each person spends that amount of money on buying cosmetics courtesy of the influencers. This was an increase from USD$168 per person in 2010. United Arab Emirates (UAE) is ranked first in the Middle East and position 11 globally.
Research by Euromonitor has shown that consumers prefer cosmetics from brands which have a heavy online presence. Companies have discovered that they have to collaborate with bloggers in order to have their presence felt online.
However, this type of marketing requires customer who are well-versed with social media. This is a strength for Gulf nations hence why the model is working perfectly well.
Analysts have also indicated that the heavy presence of expatriates in UAE has also fueled the demand for beauty products. This is a segment which has surplus income which is spent on cosmetics.
Consequently, Dubai has become a host for many global beauty companies for the last decade or so. There are large companies such as Kiko Milano, Nars, Sephora and Anastasia Beverly Hills among others. Companies which are seeking to expand into the Middle East find Dubai to be an entry point because of its cosmopolitan nature and fast growth.
Culture
Culture plays a key role in promoting the growth of beauty industry in the Middle East. This is because women in the Arab world have a culture where they care so much about their appearance.
This might explain why Nazan Asghar, a blogger based in Dubai, rose quickly due to her “Arab look.” When she started the blogging business, she had just 15 followers to boast about. All of them were either friends or family. She noted that most of her makeup styles require at least 8 products and take at least one hour to apply.
So far Nazan Asghar has grown her audience to a whooping 217,000 followers. She benefits from the fact that the women in Dubai have lots of money and they are willing to spend it on make-ups.
Even the Kattan sisters have the same believe that they are doing the right thing by engaging in makeup business which they claim is “in our DNA” they like make up in excess. It’s never too much. They always want more makeup.
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