AED55m license plates, AED2m phone numbers: How the UAE set a world record for feeding the hungry – News

Charity auction sets new world record with plot twists; proceeds go to ‘1 Billion Meals Donate’ campaign

“Go, go, sell!”

Those words marked the moment 16 years of history were rewritten. Dubai license plate number P7 sold for record AED 55 million. There was some fierce bidding on the night, with the UAE raising AED97.92 million overnight to feed hungry people around the world.

Proceeds from Saturday night’s ‘Most Prestigious Numbers’ charity auction in Dubai will support 1 Billion Meals Donation, the largest Ramadan sustainable food aid donation.

At night, while some bidders are ready to go all out to get what they want at any cost, other participants are able to control their emotions and accept when they overbid, as people compete to own unique numbers. The twists and turns of the P7 dispute are enough to dwarf the plots of Hollywood movies.

Starting at AED 15 million, bids for the P7 rose to over AED 30 million in seconds. The price stalled for a few minutes at 35 million dirhams, and the bidder was Pavel Valeryevich Durov, a French-Emirati businessman who founded the messaging app Telegram. It looked like he was going to grab the number, as bids suddenly started pouring in from a few blocks away and hosts started closing the sale.

The tension and emotion in the room was palpable as prices started to rise. The crowd cheered every time there was a new bid. Starting from AED 48 million, it was a bidding war between three players, with bid numbers 7, 77 and 1. In the end, the holder of the number 7 made history by outbidding his opponent.

After the bidding, celebratory confetti and sparks rose from the stage as a crowd gathered around the winning bidder to celebrate. He chose to remain anonymous.

With the sale, the number plate became the most expensive number plate ever sold in the UAE, beating the previous record of Dh52.2 million set by Emirati businessman Saeed Abdul Ghafar Khouri in 2008 when he bought the number plate 1 in Abu Dhabi.

Another fierce bid for e&Diamond+’s etisalat, number 054-8888888. Starting at just Dh10,000, bids quickly rose to Dh1 million. The night before, bids for other mobile numbers were only Dh140,000.

After crossing the 1 million dirham mark, the price gradually increased until it narrowed down to two friends at the same table. Bids rose steadily from AED 1.7 million, mostly in increments of AED 50,000, until reaching the final bid of AED 2.3 million. It was the most expensive phone number sold that night. The platinum mobile number 058-3333333 from du was later sold for Dh2 million.

The charity auction, organized by the Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiative and its partners, invites bids for 35 special numbers, including 14 special RTA license plate numbers, 10 special du mobile numbers and 11 etisalat by e& Diamond+ mobile number.

Proceeds from the auction will go towards the 1 Billion Meals campaign and its goal of creating sustainable solutions to combat hunger and malnutrition in impoverished communities.

“We are very happy,” said Sarah Nuaimi, director of Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Global Initiatives Office, who followed the auction closely. “We kind of hoped that we could break the record. It was a bit slow in the middle, but then it started. We are very grateful for this single bid (P7) that accelerated our goal by AED 55 million. This auction will really help us achieve our goal .”

Bidding for special number plate numbers totaled AED 91.59 million, while bids for etisalat by e&Diamond+ numbers raised a total of AED 3.32 million and du special numbers raised over AED 3 million.

Al Nuaimi urges people to continue donating to this noble cause. “Even for one dirham, people have the opportunity to make a difference for those in need,” she said. “We’re going to put money into the endowment. It will continue to generate unlimited income for those in need. Any money worth of money that people donate, it’s special to us.”

A group of businessmen and leading philanthropists took part in the most prestigious digital charity auction to support the UAE’s campaign against world hunger – a challenge that threatens the lives of 828 million people around the world.

“It’s always great to be part of an event for such a noble cause,” said Du’s CEO, Fahad Al Hassawi. “We took part in 10 figures because we always believed we could make a difference. Trying to match the efforts of the Dubai government, so we are delighted to be part of this event.”