Under the patronage of Mohammed bin Rashid, the One Billion Followers Summit will start next January 9

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, “may God protect him,” the activities of the fourth edition of the One Billion Followers Summit 2026, the first summit specialized in shaping the content industry economy, and the largest of its kind in the world, will begin next January 9, organized by the UAE Government Media Office and hosted by the United Arab Emirates over a period of 3 days at (Emirates Towers, the Dubai International Financial Center, and the Museum of the Future) in Dubai, under the slogan “Purposeful Content.”

Assistant Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Projects and Head of the UAE Government Media Office, Saeed Al-Eter, confirmed that the One Billion Followers Summit has transformed within 4 years into “the largest gathering of content makers in the world,” and it is a specialized summit that focuses on content creation. He pointed out that the UAE includes a group of events related to the media sector and the goal is to achieve the leadership’s vision for the UAE to be a global media capital.

This came during a press conference held at the influencers’ headquarters in the Emirates Towers in Dubai, in the presence of the Vice President of the UAE Government Media Office, the Director of the One Billion Followers Summit, Alia Al Hammadi, and representatives of major international social media platforms, in addition to the leaders of local, regional, and international media institutions operating in the UAE.

During the press conference, details of the agenda of the One Billion Followers Summit 2026 and developments in its fourth edition were reviewed, in addition to highlighting the most prominent events hosted by the global event.

Saeed Al-Eter said during the press conference: “In the first session, the total number of followers of the speakers was one billion followers, and this year we reached 3.5 billion followers. Today, the content industry leads the media sector. Our goal today, through the One Billion Followers Summit, is to focus on the positive impact of content makers on all sectors.”

Saeed Al-Eter added that this session will focus on two axes, the first: How can we transform content makers into impact makers, and how can we create meaningful content on social media. In this context, we launched an initiative in educational content in cooperation with TikTok, which aims to support the creation of educational and entertaining content and honor the best teachers. 610,000 participants participated in it and resulted in 320,000 videos that received 1.8 billion views on the TikTok platform. The summit also launched 5 strategic partnerships with YouTube and TikTok. Talk, Snapchat, the

Within this axis, Saeed Al-Eter pointed out the launch of the One Billion Followers Summit with the global content creator Mr. Beast, the most followed influencer on YouTube, is a campaign: 1Billion Acts of Kindness, “a billion community actions,” which carries a simple and profound idea that every content creator will do community work, and 10 global content creators will be selected to work on a humanitarian project with the support of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation and the Varkey Foundation. The results of this campaign are amazing, as it resulted in more than 170,000 community actions and received more than 100 million views within 3 weeks.

Saeed Al-Eter said: “Our goal is to change the perspective of content creators so that they can have an impact on their communities, be positive in the world of content creation, and support the creation of positive content that benefits countries and societies.”

Saeed Al-Eter added that the second axis is the use of artificial intelligence tools in content creation, as artificial intelligence will reshape the world of content creation, and the changes will be amazing and huge. In this context, the One Billion Followers Summit launched the AI ​​Film Award competition in partnership with Google Gemini, with a grand prize of up to one million dollars. We consider this award a turning point. More than 30,000 people from 116 countries participated in the competition, of which 5 films qualified for the final list.

He stressed: “The One Billion Summit aims to bring about real change in new media by supporting content makers. The world is changing very quickly, and the content, media and cinema industries are changing even more quickly. If we are not at the heart of these changes, we risk being behind… Our goal is to be part of the design of this industry.”

For her part, Alia Al Hammadi confirmed that the One Billion Followers Summit has become a laboratory for global trends in the new media space, noting that the summit in its fourth edition continues its development vision through a renewed agenda that works, through its initiatives and integrated dialogues, to give creators and content makers the necessary tools for innovation and leave a clear imprint of spread and influence, as the summit links in its agenda between stimulating talent, supporting the adoption of technology, and increasing financing and investment opportunities, to enhance the growth of the content industry economy.

She said: “In its fourth edition, the One Billion Followers Summit is writing a new chapter of global success, starting from the heart of the Emirates, moving forward with a confident vision to consolidate the country’s position as a global capital for the content creation economy,” stressing that the summit’s agenda always focuses on qualitative value and depth of interaction, by transferring the expertise of major companies and experts from all over the world to creators and talent owners who consider the winning bet in transforming “digital influence” into positive energy that drives the wheel of human and economic development towards unprecedented horizons.

The One Billion Followers Summit brings together the major global social media platforms under one roof, where (Snapchat,

In its fourth edition, the One Billion Followers Summit continues its growing momentum, hosting more than 15,000 content creators and the most important Arab and international influencers, in the largest interactive forum for exchanging ideas and knowledge, sharing experiences and expertise, and discussing the challenges, prospects and trends of the knowledge industry and digital media sector.

The summit hosts more than 500 speakers who are experts and specialists in various aspects related to the economy of content creation and new media technologies, including more than 150 CEOs and international experts.

The list of prominent speakers during the summit includes Lara Trump, the US President’s daughter-in-law, who was a producer and presenter of television programs, James Stephen Donaldson, known as “Mr. Best,” owner of the largest YouTube channel in the world and a pioneer in the field of large-scale, high-impact content, the famous American actor and producer Will Smith, and Max Amini, an American comedian, producer, director, and podcast presenter of Iranian origin of great international fame.

The list also includes Simon Squibb, the British investor known for his initiatives to support entrepreneurs, Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties, and Rio Ferdinand, the retired English football player and legendary football player, who succeeded after his retirement in becoming a multi-talented entrepreneur and a media mogul in the digital world.

The One Billion Followers Summit offers more than 580 keynote sessions, a roundtable, an interactive dialogue, a workshop, a debate, and an inspiring speech, covering three main tracks that include economics, content, and technology, in which experts and specialists from major regional and international companies specialized in digital media, social media, and technology, and a number of the most prominent influencers and famous social media celebrities from the region and the world, review their inspiring experiences and expertise about the most important digital media trends, the paths it takes, and the most prominent practices in this sector. They highlight the most important developments in the world of business, economics, investment, and content creation.

Social platform officials, influencers, and content creators exchange ideas about the future of content creation, how to build influential content, protect intellectual property, and combat misleading information, in addition to how to use analysis tools, artificial intelligence techniques, and strategies for building digital communities to support content creation.

The activities of the One Billion Followers Summit will witness honoring the winner of the largest global community movement led by content creators to spread the culture of community and purposeful content, through the “1billion Acts of Kindness” campaign, which the summit launched in a strategic partnership with the global content creator Mr. Best and with the support of the “Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives” Foundation and the Varkey Foundation.

During the summit activities, 10 international content makers will be announced among the direct participants in the fourth edition of the summit, who have sent videos of their production related to community work and creating a positive impact, to lead a global community movement from the summit.

The Billion Followers Summit 2026 will host Mr. Best, where the participating content makers and strategic partners for the campaign will be announced. The ten content makers who will be selected will work with Mr. Best and his team in effective community work and activity in communities. Through the campaign, a number of videos will be produced on the Mr. Best platform.

The One Billion Followers Summit 2026 will also witness, on its closing day, the honoring of the winner of the largest global award for films generated by artificial intelligence, worth one million US dollars, which is organized by the summit in cooperation with Google Gemini. The summit had announced the list of the 12 best films participating in the award, out of 3,500 films submitted for the award, while the 12 films were subject to voting by the public, where the best 5 films will be chosen to be shown during the summit activities and the award winner will be honored.

The closing day of the activities of the fourth edition of the Billion Followers Summit also witnesses the announcement of the winners of the “Influencer Accelerators” within the “Investing with Content Creators” program, which is the first of its kind in the world, and organized by the “Influencers Headquarters”, in cooperation with “500 Global”, and aims to provide funding and financial support to emerging companies and individuals who have pioneering ideas in the content industry, to present them before an evaluation committee composed of an elite group of major investors and companies, where the content creators or companies that succeed in their presentations before the evaluation committee will receive With investment opportunities and financing to develop their projects worth up to 50 million dirhams, provided by the headquarters of influencers and investors in the content industry sector. The program attracted 1,131 participants from content creators and emerging digital companies working in the content industry sector, from more than 70 countries.

The first edition of the “Educational Content Creators Award,” the first initiative of its kind in the world, which celebrates content makers who are reinventing online learning methods, and which was launched by the One Billion Followers Summit in partnership with the TikTok platform, attracted more than 610,000 participants, more than 320,000 videos, and 1.8 billion views.