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September 22, 2016

Publishers’ Pulse: Hussam Hammo – CEO At Tamatem

In celebration of 9 years of continued success in the mobile ad space, InMobi launches Publishers’ Pulse, an interview series in which thought publishing leaders share their history, unique perspectives and outlook on the rapidly ever changing mobile tech industry.

In this first edition, we sat down with Hussam Hammo, CEO and founder of Tamatem to learn more about the exciting gaming industry in the Arab world and middle east region where Tatatem is king.

About TAMATEM

Irene: What is Tamatem’s secret sauce? Which is your most successful title so far and why?

Hussam: Tamatem is the MENA region’s leading mobile games publishers and developers; we take successful games from across the globe and tailor them for the Arab region by localizing and making them culturally relevant.

Our most successful game to date is Shake the Metal that has unlocked more than 5 million downloads and topped charts across the region. The sequel, Shake the Metal Rush, was also a huge success and has achieved more than 3.5 million downloads so far. Both games were successful because they were both created upon the requests of our users, everything from the cars, environments and even the music were all created based on the likes and dislikes of our users.

Growth Challenges

Irene: What is your User Acquisition strategy? How do you drive downloads for your games across different regions?

Hussam: We operate and target the Arab region only, the region has very high smartphone penetration rates and there are more than 60 million active smartphone users. The main issue is that only 2% of content in the App Store are in Arabic and people crave Arabic content.

So far we have acquired more than 28 million downloads in the region, which we achieved by utilizing our user database to cross promote. The MENA region also has one of the highest social media users worldwide therefore, we use social media channels to acquire new users.

Monetization Pro-tips & Tricks

Irene: What performance metrics are the most valuable to you to maximize games monetization? Why do you rely on video ads to monetize your game?

Hussam: We mainly rely on retention, daily active users, which we believe, are key and number sessions. We use video ads because they are a lot more engaging for users, the conversion rate is much higher and they don’t ruin the user’s experience whilst playing a game.

Know Your Users

Irene: How do you collect user feedback to improve your game over time?

Hussam:To improve our games we listen to what our users want, we mostly use several social media channels. Our users are extremely engaging on social media, especially Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Industry Trends

Irene: What excites you about the near future of the industry of mobile gaming?

Hussam: We are really excited to see the future of smartphones; we are hoping to be able to create higher quality games with amazing graphics and real time multiplayer features.

Article By Irene Herranz
InMobi

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