Yango is positioning itself as more than a ride-hailing platform in Oman, with its growing technology ecosystem spanning mobility, entertainment, artificial intelligence and other digital services. As the Sultanate advances its digital transformation agenda under Oman Vision 2040, the company is increasingly focusing on how technology can address local needs while creating new opportunities for consumers, businesses and communities.
In an exclusive interview with The Gulf Post, Islam Abdul Karim, Regional Head, Yango Group Middle East, speaks about the company’s Oman strategy, its alignment with Oman Vision 2040, its women-focused mobility initiatives, the development of Yasmina AI for Arabic-speaking users, and the technologies underpinning safety, privacy and trust across its platform.
Q1. Yango has seen rapid growth and adoption across Muscat and other parts of the Sultanate recently. How does Yango’s expansion into Oman’s transport sector align with the goals of Oman Vision 2040, and what makes the Omani market unique for your digital services?
Yango’s expansion in Oman aligns naturally with Oman Vision 2040, particularly its priorities around digital transformation, economic diversification and improving the quality of services available to people. From our perspective, mobility is an important part of that transformation because it is an everyday service where technology can directly improve efficiency, access and the overall user experience.
What is particularly interesting about Oman is that there is an opportunity to combine Yango’s technology with strong local market capabilities. OTaxi is a good example. It is an established local taxi platform, and Yango provides the technology infrastructure behind the service. This gives us the ability to bring capabilities such as digital booking, upfront fare visibility and real-time trip tracking to an existing local mobility ecosystem, rather than approaching the market as a purely standalone service.
We have also adapted our offering to specific needs in the Omani market. For example, Yango offers a women-focused mobility service, and we are working with the Ministry of Social Development on a programme aimed at increasing the participation of Omani women as partner drivers. The programme is designed around the practical requirements of women entering the mobility sector, including training and support.
For us, these are not separate initiatives; they reflect a broader operating principle. We bring the technology, infrastructure and experience we have developed across markets, but the product and the way it is delivered need to reflect local realities. Oman is therefore not simply a market where we are deploying an existing model. It is a market where we are building with local partners, responding to local requirements and looking at where technology can solve specific problems.
That is where we see the longer-term opportunity. Oman has set out a clear direction for digital transformation through Vision 2040, and our role is to build technology and services that can support that direction while remaining relevant to how people and businesses actually operate in the Sultanate.
Q2. While many people know Yango primarily for ride-hailing, your footprint in the Sultanate extends far beyond getting from point A to point B. If we look under the hood of the Yango ecosystem, what other tech solutions and digital services are you delivering to Omani consumers?
Yango is fundamentally a technology company, and mobility is one important part of a much broader ecosystem. Ride-hailing is often a starting point for us. Once we establish a strong presence in a market, we look at the broader needs of consumers and businesses and explore how technology can address them. This is how we think about building a wider ecosystem around our core mobility business.
Currently in Oman, our offering extends beyond ride-hailing into a number of technology and digital services. These include Yango Play, our entertainment platform bringing together movies, series and music in one place, and Yasmina AI, our voice-based AI assistant designed to make AI-powered interactions more natural and accessible, including through Arabic. Our wider technology capabilities also span areas such as navigation, logistics, food delivery and enterprise technology solutions, giving us the ability to develop and introduce services across different aspects of everyday digital life.
The common thread across these services is technology that is designed around real consumer needs—whether that means getting around the city, accessing entertainment, interacting with AI or making everyday services more convenient and personalized.
Ultimately, we are building a digital ecosystem to support everyday city life, and our ambition extends well beyond transportation. As Oman continues to advance its digital transformation agenda, we see significant potential to bring more locally relevant technology and services to consumers and businesses across the Sultanate.
Q3. Yango recently launched a pilot program in collaboration with Oman’s Ministry of Social Development to onboard female drivers for a dedicated women-only transport service. How does this initiative support social empowerment and workforce diversification in the Sultanate?
The pilot initiative with the Ministry of Social Development represents an important step in exploring how technology and mobility can create new opportunities for women in Oman. By introducing a dedicated women-only transport service and creating opportunities for female drivers, the initiative addresses two important needs at the same time: providing greater choice and comfort for women passengers while opening new avenues for women's participation in the digital economy and mobility sector.
We believe that inclusive technology should create opportunities for different segments of society to participate, contribute and benefit. For women who choose to become partner drivers, the platform can provide an opportunity to engage with the digital economy through a flexible and technology-enabled model.
This initiative also reflects the broader objectives of Oman Vision 2040, particularly in relation to human capital development, social participation and economic diversification. We are proud to work alongside the Ministry of Social Development on a pilot that has the potential to contribute to a more inclusive mobility ecosystem.
As with any pilot, our focus is on listening, learning and understanding the experiences of both drivers and passengers. The insights we gain will be valuable in shaping how we can continue to develop solutions that respond to the evolving needs of communities across Oman.
Q4. Voice assistants often struggle to connect with users in the region because they lack dialect comprehension or cultural relevance. How does Yasmina AI bridge this gap for Omani households?
The true value of an AI assistant is beyond simply understanding prompts or commands, rather to communicate naturally with people in a way that feels local and relevant to their everyday lives. This is particularly important in the Middle Eastern region, where Arabic is crucial and cultural context shapes how people interact with technology.
Yasmina is especially relevant for Oman, as it was designed with the Arabic language, regional culture and everyday habits at its core. Its underlying model was trained on a vast dataset of Arabic texts and further fine-tuned with the support of hundreds of local content experts. Their input helped Yasmina better understand regional dialects, idioms and culturally specific expressions.
For Omani households, it can support conversations, answer questions, play music and other entertainment, assist with everyday routines, and provide culturally relevant experiences in Arabic. During Ramadan, Yasmina supports users throughout the holy month with a dedicated Ramadan calendar, daily tips and audio routines, including curated Ramadan playlists and the option to set an alarm with Quran recitations. Yasmina can also provide accurate prayer times for Muscat, play Surahs, set Adhans and give dates according to the Hijri calendar. It can recommend traditional Omani dishes such as Shuwa and help families plan visits to local destinations such as Wadi Shab.
Yasmina also continues to learn and improve through user interactions, helping to enhance its recognition accuracy and the relevance of its responses over time. Yasmina combines linguistic adaptation with locally relevant and increasingly personalised experiences and this is how it becomes such a useful companion in everyday life for users in Oman.
Q5. As digital transit and smart mobility become part of daily life across the Sultanate, user safety and data privacy remain top concerns for families. What proprietary technologies and real-time safeguards has Yango integrated into its platform to establish long-term trust in the Omani market?
Trust is fundamental to any mobility platform, and we recognize that safety, privacy and reliability are essential to building long-term confidence among both passengers and partner drivers. Our approach combines technology, operational processes and continuous monitoring to create a safer and more reliable experience.
The platform incorporates a range of technology-enabled safety features designed to support users throughout their journey. These include dedicated safety centre, trip info sharing with trusted contacts, digital trip records, route monitoring and mechanisms that enable users to access support when required. In addition, intelligent monitoring systems help detect unusual activity or potential risks in real time, allowing our teams to respond more quickly while continuously strengthening the reliability of the platform.
At the same time, data privacy is treated as an essential part of responsible technology development. We follow applicable laws and regulatory requirements and apply safeguards designed to protect user information, maintain the integrity of the platform and support responsible data management across our services.
For us, safety is not a one-time feature; it is an ongoing commitment that evolves alongside our technology. As we expand in Oman, we will continue investing in innovation, operational excellence and partnerships that strengthen the overall mobility ecosystem. Ultimately, long-term trust is built by consistently delivering technology that is reliable, responsible and designed around the needs of the communities we serve.
