The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority “Monsha’at” issued the SME Monitor report for the third quarter of 2024, which reviews the latest data on SMEs. The report revealed that 135,909 commercial registrations were issued in the third quarter of this year across all regions of the Kingdom.
The report noted a marked rise in the number of commercial registrations in the third quarter of 2024, a key indicator of the entrepreneurship landscape in the Kingdom, with the sector growing 62% year on year. Women own 46.8% of existing commercial registrations, and young people own 40%.
The report indicated that more than 25,000 enterprises and entrepreneurs benefited from the professional and business support services provided by Monsha’at in the third quarter of 2024. The Kingdom’s venture capital funding ecosystem also continued to lead the Middle East and North Africa region during the first three quarters of 2024, with SAR 1.9 billion invested in startups based in the Kingdom and 104 deals concluded in the first nine months of this year.
The report covered the publishing sector in the Kingdom, which includes more than 500 local publishing houses. It noted that since the launch of the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission in 2020, the Kingdom’s publishing industry has seen unprecedented growth across several key indicators, such as the rise in the number of publishing houses and the growth in the number of visitors to local book fairs, which exceeded 2.2 million visitors in 2023, an increase of 22% compared with 2022. The Riyadh International Book Fair also attracted works from more than 30 countries and 2,000 publishing houses, helping draw more than one million visitors and achieve book sales worth SAR 28 million in 2024.
The report highlighted the key initiatives launched by the Commission to enable SMEs and entrepreneurs to become literary agents, form literary partnerships with entities in the literary ecosystem and local cafés, learn and adopt best practices from international publishing houses, and develop publishing skills in print and digital publishing.
The CEO of the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, Doctor Mohammed Hasan Alwan, stated: “The Commission launched five business accelerators that benefited more than 100 SMEs, whose revenues grew by an average of nearly 20%, and created 115 new permanent jobs. This was supported by the signing of 54 partnerships with entities in the government and private sectors to facilitate the business of SMEs in the three sectors. The Commission also cooperated with the Ministry of Investment to attract regional and international publishing houses to the Saudi market, with the aim of enriching literary production in the Kingdom and attracting diverse experiences that strengthen professionalism and raise overall competitiveness.”
The report includes a section on global developments in publishing for SMEs, including new business models that serve more than one billion e-book users around the world as a result of the growth in digital publishing, such as audiobooks, direct-to-consumer sales, and self-publishing, which SMEs can take advantage of.
The SME Monitor report for the third quarter of 2024 is part of a series of quarterly reports issued by Monsha’at, reviewing the latest developments in the entrepreneurship environment and the latest figures and statistics, alongside a series of specialized reports that Monsha’at issues periodically on topics of interest to entrepreneurs in the Kingdom, with the aim of providing a reliable reference for information and figures for entrepreneurs, investors, and those interested.