Kochava empowers marketers to measure the previously unattributable (“organic”) installs resulting from social influencers.

Social media influencers are taking mobile by storm. They can reach tens of millions of followers in just seconds with their wit, humor and creativity. And with the rise of ad-blocking, advertisers need alternative ways to reach and engage their audiences. Brands big and small are capitalizing on the talent and audiences of social influencers and using Kochava to attribute user acquisition and quantify return on investment (ROI) from these campaigns.

Mobile analytics and attribution take center stage in tracking the installs that social influencers drive. SmartLink and data science modeling at Kochava are proven ways to measure the impact of social influencers. What was once an unattributable marketing practice is now measurable with these methods. Just ask Kochava client Tamatem, a mobile games publisher, who exclusively markets their apps on social media networks with select social influencers. Their users largely frequent social networks and primarily Instagram. Tamatem uses unique SmartLinks to track the effectiveness of social influencer campaigns. If advertisers know their audience well, they can tap into influencers on the particular social networks their users frequent.

Superstar social influencers like Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber understandably have massive followings. Then, there are new names, such as Logan Paul, featured recently on a 60 Minutes story about social media influencers. He’s gained notoriety by posting mini comedic sketches just long enough to hold a Millennial’s attention and keep them coming back for more. Advertisers are looking for influencers like him to spark “the next big thing” trending on social media, and companies like Dunkin’ Donuts are leveraging Paul’s international appeal through his self-made mobile ads that include promotional links to the company’s app.

“Audiences respond more to an organic message. If it comes from an influencer, that’s when it sounds like it’s coming from the community.… What they’re doing is inspiring their audiences,” said Heidi Sullivan, SVP of Customer Service at Cision. Sullivan recently co-hosted a webinar on social influencers about how to connect with people like Paul.

Like social influencers, Kochava tools have a far reach. Using SmarkLinks or data science models, advertisers can attribute the installs influenced by the “tiny screen stars” of mobile. A single SmartLink redirects users to the app store or desired site and tracks all devices, iOS and Android alike. SmartLink is a way for advertisers to monitor their marketing methods and get a full picture of a campaign—whether it was an all-encompassing campaign or one specific to social influencers. With data science modeling, Kochava works with clients to determine a lookback window from when to attribute installs to a particular event where there is no tracker. It’s the only way to measure unattributed installs surrounding an event whose influence would be otherwise unknown.

While there are no hard and fast rules on how to find and utilize social influencers, they have the talent to connect with and engage an audience in a personalized setting. As the industry changes, so too must an advertiser’s tactics for reaching their desired audiences. Of note, however, the Federal Trade Commission requires that influencers include when their post is sponsored by an advertiser.

Advertisers shouldn’t expect to find social influencers across all platforms. Rather, they should be selective and establish a strong digital presence on the platforms appropriate to a product. Influencer marketing is historically an organic way to reach an audience, but it now has a measurable method with Kochava SmartLink or their data science team.

“(Identifying influencers) requires work to find them and build the relationships, but influencer marketing campaigns could provide a significant percentage of ROI—there is a payoff,” Sullivan said.

Learn more about SmartLinks here, or for more information on tracking social influencers, contact your account manager.

Article By Leslie Amadio
Kochava

AMMAN — While entrepreneurs are constantly reminded to receive feedback and listen carefully to criticism, it is important that they remain loyal to their vision of the business, established entrepreneurs said on Tuesday.

They agreed that pitching project ideas to investors and venture capital firms may not always succeed, and even if it does, funds may not meet the expectations of entrepreneurs.

Yet, trying, re-trying and learning from previous mistakes is key for success, they said at the fourth Deal Makers 2016 event, organised by Endeavour Jordan.

Mudassir Sheikha — from Pakistan, who is the co-founder and managing director of Careem — urged entrepreneurs to think of “big, meaningful and challenging” business projects in order to succeed and differentiate themselves from others, adding that meaningful businesses are not only income-generating, but are also ones that improve the lives of workers.

Careem, a ride hailing service, operates in 43 cities in 11 countries, with over 100,000 captains and over 6 million customers. The company, a $72 million investment, registers a 25 to 30 per cent monthly growth. 

He summed up his learning experience from the business over the past four years in the need to address local problems, adjusting to market needs, hiring “awesome” people whatever it takes, finding local partners and developing a clear purpose of the business.

Vision of the business 

Entrepreneurs can be swayed to change their entire business based on the critique of some more experienced entrepreneurs, said Khalil Shadid, founder of ReserveOut, adding that a suggestion to change the field of his business took him over three weeks of thinking.

He then decided to risk doing what he thought was right.

“You should always take feedback, but you have to decide,” he told an audience of entrepreneurs.

But Mohammad Shaker, co-founder of ArabiaWeather, had a different experience. The feedback he received had helped him gain a wider view and helped him improve the weather forecasting business that he started at home.

He said he often faced a difficulty in presenting his technology and science-based ideas to juries and potential investors, but once he was able to do so he was able to develop the business.  

Fundraising 

Ala Sallal, founder of Jamalon, an online bookstore, said investors turned down his initial fund request, but “persistence” helped him succeed in collecting a total of $7.5 million so far.

Hussam Hammo, CEO of Tamatem Games, urged entrepreneurs to diversify sources of funding, as it takes some investors months to reply to a funding proposal without giving entrepreneurs a clear answer.

Both Sheikha and Sallal said they had previous entrepreneurial projects that did not take off. 

The two-day event, which concluded on Tuesday, featured several one-to-one networking sessions where entrepreneurs receive live feedback on their products and services.

In addition, angel investors and venture capital firms engaged with entrepreneurs in discussions addressing investment opportunities.

Article By Dana Al Emam
Jordan Times

Video games are a multi-billion-dollar industry, and in the Middle East, the video game market is burgeoning, with Jordan leading the game. As the largest producer of digital games in the region, Jordan contributes about 60 per cent of the games developed in the Middle East.

In the last few years Jordan’s gaming industry has witnessed a significant boom. Recently the nation established new gaming labs to meet the growing interest in digital game development. With a host to three existing gaming labs — in Amman, Irbid and Aqaba, Jordan aims to encourage young generation to explore their talent into gaming.

Jordan’s high mobile penetration rate has led many startups in the nation to produce active digital games, the prominent ones being:

Tamatem

In its short span of existence, Tamatem has published 40 games with over 26M downloads to date. The company is still enhancing its games to cater to the taste of its Arab audience. The company grew by 155% in 2015 and is expecting 200% growth in 2016.

Play 3arabi

Play 3arabi is a mobile game publisher focused on the MENA region. Play 3arabi identifies successful international games that fit the region’s users, licenses them then localizes and publishes them in Arabic.

Bee Labs

Founded in 2013, Bee Labs shot to fame with its Shibshib War game, (which was ranked Best New App on Apple’s App store). The company also signed a partnership with the British company, Palringo.

Na3m Games

Na3m produces digital content for Arab audiences.

Maysalward

Maysalward is one of the oldest digital gaming companies in Jordan; launched in 2003, is the first mobile game development company in the Middle East. Last year, Maysalward in cooperation with Zain Jordan launched the first Arabic version of the global digital game “Cut the Rope 2”.

Article By NAUSHEEN SHAMSHER
Waleg

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

As global gaming publishers overlook the Arab region’s hunger for localized mobile games, regional publishers are not. 

According to Strategy&, the MENA game market reached $1.6 billion in 2014 and is expected to climb to $4.4 billion in 2022. At least 14 Arab states made it to Newzoo’s estimated top 100 countries in game revenues for the current year. Newzoo is a global gaming and mobile intelligence firm.

The popularity of Arabic language globally, high gaming revenue growth, optimistic smartphone penetration amounting to 117 million in 2014 and expected to grow to 327 million by 2020, are just some of the many factors encouraging the establishment of regional gaming startups. They also push international developers to access the market.

“Many game developers are exploring new markets and MENA is considered to still be untapped. Most developers and publishers especially global ones have all considered the region at some point or another. However, some are moving at a faster pace than others,” said gaming expert Fadi Ramahi in an interview with Wamda.

Falafel games (Lebanon), Maysalward and Tamatem (Jordan), GameTako (KSA) and Tahadi Games (UAE)  are few of the regional players driving this industry forward. For more, check out Wamda’s list of gaming studios in the Arab region here.

Tamatem: success after success

In May 2016, Jordanian mobile games publisher, Tamatem, was ranked first place in Apple Store two days after the release of their latest game ‘Escape the Past’, that by then got 30,000 downloads.

“‘Escape the Past’ is the first paid game we release and we are very excited that it reached the top of the charts in such a short period of time,” CEO Hussam Hammo, said in a statement.

The game is a product of a collaboration between Tamatem and French video game studio, 3DDuo.

The last time Wamda covered Tamatem a year ago, the publisher had reached 10 million downloads. Today, the company rests at 28 million downloads and 155 percent revenue increase since 2015.

Tamatem, as do other publishers in the MENA, aim to become the channel through which global  gaming studios access the Arabic market.

“[Tamatem] understands the Arabic gaming world better than us. They have a user-base that already consumes racing games… and so can help us chisel the product to the requirements”, said Tudor Rad, cofounder and CEO of Romanian Transylgamia game studio. They are partnering with Tamatem for the localization of its game ‘Get Away Driver’ into “ادعس يا شنب”.

The pre-launch story

Before launching Tamatem, Hammo along with three other entrepreneurs started Wizards Production Company, an Arabic focused massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) provider in 2009. Four years later, the company closed down.

“The ecosystem was not as evolved, and we didn’t have enough experience as entrepreneurs”, elaborated Hammo who then pursued his dream to build something around mobile. In 2014, Tamatem was up and running.

In 2013, 500 Startups accepted Hammo to its program although he was still at an idea stage with no traction, product or team.

The company’s first investor was Guitar Hero’s founder Kai Huang who was interested in localization. After Huang, the domino effect kicked in. Investors brought other investors, including MENA Ventures and Arzan VC. The company is currently fundraising two million dollars.

“VCs have already realized that gaming is the next big thing,” said Ramahi. “I expect mobile operators as well to show a similar level of interest.  MENA gaming needs support from investors, and requires the global players to take their MENA plans to the next level,” he said.

Game categories

Tamatem mainly focuses on casual games that can be played as one offs, and mid core games that require light commitment. Categories include a variety of puzzle games, strategy games, racing, word and trivia games. In parallel, the company will be exploring the sphere of card games very soon due to the lack of quality options in the region, Hammo added.

Although most games are freemiums, in app purchases and ads allow the company to make a revenue of one million dollars a year, according to Hammo. Ads make up more than twice the revenue generated from in-app purchases and internally developed games generating 70 percent of the company’s revenue shares in comparison to the 30 percent pertaining to localized games.

Tamatem’s ability to have half of its games on top charts is a result of a strong marketing strategy that targets the company’s already existing 18 million users. Owning such a big database helps the company achieve a higher return rate, Hammo says.

Seventy percent of the users come from Saudi Arabia, 20 percent from the GCC and the 10 percent are randomly dispersed.

Challenges of localization

By now, Tamatem has developed 20 games in house, and localized and published 20 others from around the world. They have worked with gaming studios in the US, UK, France, Eastern Europe and Romania.

“Localization is crucial” explained Rad during an interview with Wamda. “You risk cutting off a large portion of your potential customer base by not localizing your English games and launching or trying to market them in non-English speaking areas.”

But Arabic language is hard and complicated to begin with, explained Hammo. Needless to say, we need to be culturally sensitive and very careful not to offend gamers.

It’s also not just about the language. They alter every aspect of the game including characters if they look too Western, or music and sound effects if they do not fit the region’s taste. The tiniest details are taken into consideration; car racing games for example require replacing original cars with those mostly used in the region.

“You need a strong partner to help you with localization, someone that not only can translate the texts perfectly, but also tailor the game to the localized area’s wants and needs and make it a cultural fit”, said Rad.

Article By Tala El Issa
Wamda

The notion of ‘First World Problems’ is one that many are familiar with, a rare occasion when those in the First World poke fun at themselves and their entitlement.

Whether it’s a flight being late, a particular kind of coffee being unavailable or broadband speeds being less than supersonic, the problems of the First World are relative difficulties that other countries would love to have.

Bandwidth issues are the most ridiculous of our complaints. As I write, I am able to watch UK horse-racing in one corner of my screen, as well as being able to do four or five things at the same time because of the speed of my internet connection.

For others, this is far from the case and it is only when travelling to emerging economies and sharing their experiences, how seemingly impossible it is for people, let only companies, to get anything done online.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the dichotomy between countries’ bandwidth capabilities are vast. While Israel, and particularly Tel Aviv, benefits from the faster internet in the world, neighbouring countries such as Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon struggle by on much slower technologies.

Even the differences between these territories are unthinkable. Hussam Hammo is the CEO of mobile games company Tamatem, which are based in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Recently, he invited over to the city some of the startups represented by Gaza Sky Geeks, an accelerator based in Gaza that encourages young entrepreneurs to set up companies where population density is of almost claustrophobic intensity and career opportunities limited.

“It was incredible. These guys were used to 1G speeds and although we still struggle in Jordan to get 3G, they were doing things they could not have dreamt of doing back in Gaza.

“Whenever I come back from Silicon Valley or London, I always get frustrated when I come back to Amman and the online limitations Tamatem has to face, but the Gaza Sky Geeks experience encouraged me to make the most out of every byte of bandwidth,” he says.

It certainly seems to be working for Hammo. The company publishes its own games in Arabic for the MENA region and localises into the language games from the world’s biggest publishers. It realised two years ago that the App stores were empty of Arabic-based content and have addressed that lucky lacuna.

The company is experiencing 40% month-on-month growth on downloads and revenue and in 2014-15 had 200% growth over those 12 months. It is also the only Arabic company to have been selected by 500 Startups, having graduated in London as part of the Dojo Distro program at the end of last year.

“​I think the market in MENA is absolutely huge, but if you want proof from a third party, according to Arabnet, in 2020 this will be a market of 700 million people that will be worth $2.4 billion,” adds Hammo.

The mention of Arabnet is timely. It describes itself as the hub for Arab digital entrepreneurs to connect and learn. It runs a series of events across the region aimed at growing the web and mobile industry, and launching new digital startups.

Not least of these events is the conference in Beirut, now in its sixth year and the launching pad for the city’s tech culture. Last year, Lebanese startup accelerator Flat6Labs started its first tech programme in the city, which will see them invest seed money of up to $50,000 in more than 100 companies.

The city even has its ‘Digital District’ in the shadow of the Al-Omari mosque, a much more beautiful backdrop than anywhere in Palo Alto or London’s so-called Tech City in Shoreditch.

While the Arabnet conferences have made an extraordinary impact on confidence in the MENA reject, it is perhaps the influence of another up-and-coming conference that will provide a longer legacy.

The STEP conference took place this month (EDITOR NOTE: 4/5th April) in Dubai and not only did it focus on the MENA region, but was of such quality that it could have taken place anywhere in the world. Companies based in Europe were represented, but more importantly wealth management funds and VCs were out in force.

Dubai, not least its immigration visa policies and immigration queues that face those who do obtain travel documents, is as far from Jordan and Lebanon in capitalist and status terms as London and Berlin, but confidence was apparent around the 3,000 attendees. Dubai, itself, remains an acquired taste for visitors.

One particular innovation in the cuty was Startups On A Plane, not only for its networking opportunities, but also because meetings in Dubai were on a yacht, not a plane.

Berthed in the harbour adjacent to the STEP conference and five minutes’ walk away, it was an opportunity for investors and startups to talk in a more salubrious environment than a conference stand. When the conference was over, those involved moved on to Teheran to bring together in the Iranian tech ecosystem.

Naturally, in an oil-rich state such as Dubai, internet speeds were fast enough for any of those in the First World to have any Problem with it, but the confidence on show suggests that in the future, it will be companies in the MENA region that will be showing the First World how to do things.

Personally, and on the basis of the excellent things I saw at STEP, I have no (First World) Problem with that.

Article By Monty Munford
Huffington Post

Last week in Beirut a large group of disparate people gathered to find out what the future held in store. This, however, was not an assembly of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but more than 1,000 decisionmakers in the digital space who were attending the ArabNet 2016 conference.

According to the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, there were than one million refugees in Lebanon at the end of January 2016. The exodus from Syria, and any accompanying political situation, shows no sign of being resolved and the future looks grim and forlorn.

The Middle-East seems like a kind of hell where everybody is displaced, misplaced or replaced. The future looks worse than grim and forlorn, it looks stuck in a gravitational wave from the edges of the universe.

At ArabNet, those attendees, speakers and panellists showed no sign of depression or helplessness. While politicians differ and bicker in the Old World of the Great Game of Great Powers, it is technologists who are likely to determine the future of the region; not the warriors or schemers.

In many respects, the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region is booming, not with the sounds of war, but with investors and startups finally realising that the only way to stability in MENA is to have a tech ecosystem and infrastructure that entice entrepreneurs, not soldiers.

ArabNet is now in its seventh year and also holds conferences in Riyadh and Dubai and has been at the forefront of entrepreneurial support by mixing its conferences, website and startup database to create a serious product for those in the ecosystem.

But MENA-man cannot live by one conference alone and the upcoming STEP 2016 conference in Dubai offers MENA entrepreneurs and investors, as well as people outside the region, another opportunity to discover that MENA is a place to do very good business.

Describing itself as the ‘Middle East’s most disruptive event for technology, design, and gaming’, last year more than 2,000 digerati and 100 startups  watched more than 50 global speakers at STEP 2015. This year, the organisers expect the event to double in size. Hussam Hammo is CEO of Jordanian-based games company Tamatem and attended the event last year.

“In MENA we need experience and exposure to new technologies and access to investors. Attending global conferences such as last year’s STEP help those in the local region to understand what is happening around the world,” he said.

The total value of the investment funds that will be present at STEP 2016  is estimated at nearly $1 billion, representing a healthy, competitive VC and investment landscape. The emphasis at this year’s event will be on attracting the best VCs and angel investors to share their knowledge with organisers predicting the conference will double in size this year.

The two Co-Founders of the event are Nizar Fakih and Ray Dargham, local entrepreneurs who have built up the event to the place of influence it has now reached. Fakih is especially charismatic and enthusiastic about the future of MENA as of the world’s most emerging markets.

“In the past few years there have finally been improvements on the investment scene in the MENA region, but as the ecosystem is still in its emerging stages, we can see that although there are numerous funds, the culture is still highly risk averse.

“Aspiring founders and innovators need to see great stories of successful investments, incredible growth and fruitful exits to be encouraged to undertake the life of entrepreneurs, and until VCs and investors are willing to take risks, the highly expected boom will not materialise,” he said.

Conferences such as STEP and ArabNet are undoubtedly key to bringing attention to the MENA region. Fakih, however, is right when he says that is up to the so-called risk-takers in the VC world, not just turn on at conferences giving advice and meeting startups, but also to put their money on the table.

Even so, when the Arab world is, as previously said, displaced, misplaced or replaced, there will come a time when the region will not be about war and oil, but a place where entrepreneurs will prosper with a tech ecosystem and various local tech hubs that will rival any of those in the world. Anything that helps this process is to be highly welcomed and supported.

Article By Monty Munford
Forbes

Fresh from coming third in last week’s Startup Turkey Challenge 2016, Tamatem CEO Hussam Hammo explains why his Jordanian company is attracting interest from around the world.

Amman in Jordan probably isn’t the first place that gamers or investors think of when looking for quality, but games company Tamatem’s CEO, Hussam Hammo is changing that perception.

Here he talks about how Tamatem is opening up the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region to publishers, gamers and, most importantly, investors. He speaks exclusively to Mob76 Outlook about why this market matters.

WHAT IS HAPPENING THAT MAKES TAMATEM RELEVANT?

I are seeing for the first time a major shift in the market for mobile games in the MENA region. Arabic is the fourth-biggest language in the world, but at present only 1% of content is accessible in this language.

I know that mobile gamers in MENA now want culturally relevant and localised content they can access in the app stores of Google and Apple. They are hungry for content, but the app stores are empty of Arabic content.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CORRECT THIS?

My company is localising global content into Arabic and creating/publishing our own games because we understand our language and our audience. Whenever we publish or localise a game, it goes straight to Number One and it stays there for weeks. Just look at our website to see the ticker showing our real-time numbers.

WHAT IS THE BIG PICTURE HERE?

There are more than 100 million Arabic speakers and it is the fastest-growing market in the world. The demographics of the people in the MENA are among the youngest in the world because of the high local birth rate.​

In some MENA countries, smartphone penetration is even higher than countries in Europe and the US, so the market is huge, and mobile games in MENA offer everybody, such as Saudi Arabian women, an opportunity to express themselves culturally and ​creatively.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM THIS COMPANY IS SOLVING?

​Localising successful games from around the world has proved difficult in the past for games companies as the sector has not been targeted intelligently and with the Arabic market in mind. I saw an opportunity for me and our company to make a difference and also to build a big company based on this.

We offer gamers the chance to play their favourite global games by making them feel as if they were created in the territory where those games are being played. I hate it when I want to play games in my language and I’m bombarded by English greetings and language.

Our expertise and experience in this area and our massive database makes it very cheap and easy for our games, both localised and published, to reach top rankings across MENA. To date, out of 25 featured games, 22 have gone to #1.

TELL US THE STORY OF THE COMPANY

​I founded the company in 2013 and later that year we became the first Arabic company selected by 500 Startups as part of the Dojo Distro in London. We were told that Silicon Valley and other investors would never be interested in Arabic startups and especially not a mobile games company. I was determined to change people’s minds and prove that a company based in Amman was as good as one based in Cupertino.

When I went to Mountain View and presented our deck that showed insanely high figures, lots of investors were instantly interested, resulting in a $1.15 million funding round. I are currently choosing which strategic investor is best for us as we raise another round in Q2 2016.

TELL US THE STORY OF YOU, HUSSAM HAMMO

I was early to social networks and created the first Arabic social network in 2006 and ​I sold this to maktoob.com, before that company was subsequently purchased by Yahoo!.

In 2008 I saw a great opportunity with a hugely successful German browser-based game called Travian that had been localised into 50 languages, but Arabic wasn’t included. I thought such games in Arabic were something the market was waiting for.

HOW QUICKLY IS TAMATEM GROWING?

We are seeing ​40% month-on-month growth on downloads and revenue and in 2014-15 we had 200% growth over those 12 months. We have had more than 16 million total downloads of 35 games, of which 22 have reached Number One, and we now have more than 2.1 million monthly active users and 350,000 daily active users.

WHY SHOULD PUBLISHERS WORK WITH YOU AND NOT YOUR COMPETITORS?

We have spent the last decade working with Arabic customers and companies. We understand the market and what they need. We can also build communities bigger and better than anybody in MENA as well as having the largest number of credible global partners.

Article By Monty
Mob76 Outlook

We know the stock markets have started 2016 badly. The South Asian bubble, led by China desperately spending money to bring people into cities from the countryside, is over. Russia is suffering huge economic pain because of Western sanctions and Europe is undergoing a fundamental migration shift that is destroying budgets.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s cynical plan to destroy the US fracking industry has worked, but decimated oil prices to the extent that they have fallen 70% in the past 15 months. Nobody seems to have any money left apart from the Norwegians, Indians and Iranians.

So, show us the money. Where are the new and more reliable reserve currencies and safe markets? In a world where printer ink is now more expensive than Chanel No 5, what are the products and where are the territories that are going to define the rest of the decade?

Bizarrely, in a time of slumping oil prices, that territory may be the Middle East, and it may also be the games that people play on their mobile phones that will prove to be deeper than any lucrative oil gusher.

There are more than 100 million Arabic speakers and it is the fastest-growing market in the world. The demographics of the people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are among the youngest in the world because of the high local birth rate.​

Mobile games are huge business in the territory of and the market shows no sign of slowing down. According to Strategy&, the global consultancy arm of PwC, the MENA market was $680 million last year and will climb to $2.3 billion in 2022.

The major reason for this market is the desire for localised content. Arabic is the world’s fourth-largest language, but the world’s games publishers have been slow to realise the opportunities it presents because only 1% of content available in the local app stores of Google and Apple is in Arabic.

One company founded in 2013 in Amman, Jordan is achieving phenomenal growth by localising globally published mobile games, as well as developing their own games for Arabic speakers. Tamatem is the name of the company and is achieving 40% month-on-month growth across the region.

After recently opening up a new office in Cairo, Tamatem says it has had more than 16 million total downloads of 35 games, of which 25 have reached No 1, and they now have more than 2.1 million monthly active users and 350,000 daily active users.

In some MENA countries, smartphone penetration is even higher than countries in Europe and the US, and mobile games in MENA offer everybody, such as Saudi Arabian women, an opportunity to express themselves culturally and ​creatively in a way that is not always possible.

​”We let Arabic gamers play successful games that weren’t previously visible in their territories. Arabic players want to play other Arabic players in their own language, not being greeted by other players in English and other languages. We allow them to play the games they love within a community that understands the culture of that gameplay,” says Hussam Hammo, Founder and CEO, Tamatem.

Impressive numbers, but another company that is also successful in MENA is London-based chat games company Palringo, which originally set up as messaging platform in 2008.

The company has more than 45 million users and says chat games now represent 50% of the company’s revenues and it says that MENA users represent high ARPU (average revenue per user) because of the status that their gamers are willing to pay for.

This comes in the form of in-app purchases where gamers pay for influence and special rewards. The company has used its success in MENA to expand into Russia, Brazil and India, and is focusing on being a social platform for finding games and people to play with.

Last year Palringo had revenues of almost $14 million in 2014, up 100% from $7 million in 2013 and was as placed 7th out of 100 companies by The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 2015, a list of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies. The company says 2015 figures will show a further explosion in growth.

“We connect people around the world based on the common interest of games, rather than people who already know each other. This allows users to interact differently compared to how they might interact with their close friends on other specific messaging apps,” says Tim Rea, CEO Palringo.

In 2016, Tamatem and Palringo are likely to be joined in MENA by other companies that have finally realised they can strike mobile games oil in the region… Chinese companies, especially, are targeting the region and the mobile games business.

But for now, the old cliche first-mover advantage applies they are pumping out money faster than any pipeline, or any other business. Middle East crisis? What Middle East crisis?

Article By Monty Munford
Forbes