Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does this activity cover?
This activity covers managing websites that serve as gateways to internet content. It includes media sites and other portals that provide periodically updated content such as news, articles, multimedia, and curated resources on a centralised, regularly refreshed platform.
2. Who are the typical users?
Typical users are daily readers arriving for news, market updates, sports results, or lifestyle features, plus advertisers, sponsors, and content partners buying placement against the audience the portal builds and holds across desktop and mobile.
3. Does this include news websites?
Yes, news websites that publish and refresh editorial content on a regular schedule fall under this activity. The same applies to finance, sports, lifestyle, technology, and other vertical content portals that update periodically for their audience.
4. Is this the same as a search portal?
No, this is the media or content variant of a web portal. Search portals that run on a search engine and return ranked results to typed queries fall under a separate activity within the broader web portals group.
5. Can the portal earn from advertising and subscriptions?
Yes, both are standard revenue models for media portals. Display advertising, native and sponsored content, brand partnerships, and subscription tiers on premium articles, sections, or paywalled content are all monetisation paths that sit naturally within this activity.
How to Start a Media Portal Business with Meydan Free Zone
A commuter on Sheikh Zayed Road scans the morning headlines before the next exit. A trader in Deira opens a finance portal to check the overnight moves. A football fan in Al Quoz refreshes the league table at half-time. A foodie in JBR scrolls through the weekend's reviews. None of those pages stay still. Somebody pushes the updates and runs the portal that holds them.
Media portals sit at the centre of how content is consumed online. The global entertainment and media industry was worth USD 2.9 trillion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 3.5 trillion by 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7 percent, according to PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook¹. In the UAE, the digital banner advertising market, the format that funds most media and content portals, was worth USD 451.52 million in 2025 and is set to reach USD 530 million by 2029, at a CAGR of 4.27 percent, according to Statista². For a media portal, that is a global market shifting more spend online every year, and a local market with budgets aimed straight at the pages a content portal publishes.
A media portal sits at the centre of an ad market moving decisively online, and the UAE budgets are shifting in step. The headline number is global, the proof is local.
Source: PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029 and Statista Digital Banner Advertising United Arab Emirates 2024, via Statista
Picture a media portal in motion. The news desk pushes the morning's lead story, the markets team updates the gold and oil prices, the sports desk posts the half-time score, and the lifestyle editor schedules a weekend dining feature. The homepage refreshes through the day. Push notifications fire on mobile. Sponsored placements, native articles, and display banners sit alongside the editorial. Every click is logged, every reader is recognised, and the page they land on is increasingly the one they did not know they wanted. The portal earns on the audience it builds and keeps coming back.
Whether it is the morning headlines, the live market price, or tonight's restaurant recommendation, a media portal is where the user goes to find out.
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Who is this for?
- News and current affairs portals: Operators running websites that publish and refresh news, headlines, and editorial content for general or regional audiences.
- Vertical content portals: Businesses running portals focused on a specific topic, industry, or interest, such as finance, sports, lifestyle, technology, or entertainment.
- Content aggregator portals: Firms running portal sites that pull together curated content from different sources into a single, easy-to-browse destination.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process, providing a regulated and cost-efficient base from which to operate a media portal in a market where digital content consumption and ad spend keep climbing year on year.
6312.02 - Operation of Other Websites That Act as Portals to the Internet, Such as Media Sites Providing Periodically Updated Content
Under this activity, your business is licensed to operate websites that act as portals to the internet, such as media sites and other content portals providing periodically updated content to users.
A media portal business runs websites that act as gateways to internet content. The work is to aggregate, curate, and publish a steady stream of content, news, articles, multimedia, and other resources, onto a centralised platform that users return to. The portal updates regularly so the page stays fresh, and earns on the audience it holds. The clients are mixed: readers arriving for the content, and advertisers, sponsors, and content partners buying access to the audience built around it.
This activity is specifically for operating the media or content portal itself. Running a search portal, providing the underlying hosting infrastructure, publishing original content as a publisher, or building portal websites for clients as a service all fall under separate activities.
If your business operates a media or content portal as defined here, you are in. If you run a search engine, host other people's sites, or build content platforms for clients, a different activity applies.
Third-Party Approval
No third-party approval is required for this business activity.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
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Citations
¹ PwC. Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029. PwC, 2025.
² Statista. Digital Banner Advertising - United Arab Emirates. Statista, 2024.
